The Pope obviously can't take a joke.

Nor, it seems, can Italy's Justice Ministry, for they've given the green light for prosecutors to use a fascist era law against comedienne Sabina Guzzanti, who recently took aim at his Holiness:

Guzzanti is accused of "offending the honour of the sacred and inviolable person" of Pope Benedict XVI.

The satirist and comedian, during a routine at a rally in Rome in July, condemned the Vatican‘s interference in issues such as gay rights.

“Within twenty years the Pope will be where he ought to be, in Hell, tormented by great big poofter devils — and very active ones, not passive ones," she said.

Now the Rome prosecutor has been given permission to proceed against her under the 1929 Lateran Treaty.

The treaty, between the Vatican and the Italian government, was signed when fascist leader Benito Mussolini was in power.

It stipulated that an insult to the Pope carries the same penalty as an insult to the Italian President.

Even Guzzanti's father, right-leaning MP Paolo Guzzanti, wagged a finger at the green light, saying "[This is] a return to the Middle Ages. Perhaps my daughter should be be submitted to the judgment of God by being made to walk on hot coals."

Tired of living quietly in a macho culture, members of Italy's various security forces are rallying and preparing to come out:

The Open Polis association will launch in the northern Italian city of Bologna on 26 September. Membership is open to gay men and women from the police, the paramilitary Carabinieri and tax police, as well as the army and the air force.

"For many of us in uniform, the worry is not violent physical attacks, but blatant discrimination, and daily 'macho' jokes and language," said Open Polis President Nicola Cicchitti, who serves with Italy's tax police, quoted by Italian daily, Corriere della Sera.

"The entry of women into the police and army has altered this macho culture somewhat, but hasn't been able to get rid of it," Cicchitti said.
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A key goal of the association will be to change attitudes towards gay men and women in the security forces and set up groups to train colleagues in handling crimes against gays.

About 200 men and women have already signed up with Open Polis, which will soon become the planet's most attractive gay rights group, we're sure…

Maurizio Beretta, president of Italian employers' federation Confindustria, says his organization could definitely do well with a gay leader. We gays, you know, are a part of the economy, too!

Via AGI News:

Beretta explained: "In Confindustria we value businesspeople for their skills, for the results they can achieve for the association, there is no discrimination. It is a mistaken idea to consider businesspeople as conservatives - if there is a social category that really needs to be innovative then it is ours!".

According to Beretta then, gay people, singles and older people are the motor of the modern economy: "they are the emerging mononuclear categories", he said, "gay people, singles and older people can spend more than a parent. It should be underlined that models of current consumerism reflect the evolution of society".

Hooray for equality through consumption!

What a scientific week!

First the gay brain debate - and its potential social ramifications - and now there's new work linking homosexuality and genetics, although this theory may need a bit of work:

Italian scientists have come up with an explanation for the puzzle as to why homosexuality, if it is hereditary, has not been eliminated from the gene pool to date, despite the fact that gay people are less likely to reproduce than heterosexuals.

Andrea Camperio-Ciani, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Padova, says that homosexuality in males may be caused in part by genes that can increase fertility in females.

The researcher says that he and his colleagues have observed that some female relatives of gay men tend to have more children than average.

Camperio-Ciani went on to describe these genes as "sexually antagonistic," meaning that increase a woman's "fecundity," while decreasing it in men. Does this men we gays aren't fertile, because we were really hoping on using those sperm of ours!

The scientists, meanwhile, are going to get cracking on the "lesbian gene." Apparently the gendered differences go deeper than just fertility…

West Hollywood wasn't the only proud place this weekend. Gay pride fever swept across Europe, where countless queers came out to show their gay faces.

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Here's one reason why former beauty contestants and showgirl's shouldn't go into politics: Mara Carfagna. Recently appointed as Italy's minister for equal opportunities by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Carfagna proved her penchant for inequality by saying she would not back "pointless" gay pride:

Carfagna said in comments published Monday that she would not back the June gay pride event in Bologna because "gay prides are pointless."

"Homosexuality is no longer a problem, at least not the way the organizers of these demonstrations would have us believe," Carfagna said. "Gay pride's only aim is official recognition for homosexual couples, on the same level with marriage. I cannot agree to that."

"Gone are the times when homosexuals were declared mentally ill," Carfagna told Corriere della Sera. "Today there is such a thing as integration into society."

Please tell us this chick's not for real.

Mauro Del Vecchio's like Italy's very own General Peter Pace! No, he didn't call gays immoral, as former Joint Chiefs Chairman Pace so famously declared last year, the former NATO commander did voice his objection to homos in the military:

I respect any legitimate and lawful choice by a person, but I believe that in a structure like the army, where activities are always carried out together, it is advisable not to declare or reveal one's homosexuality.

Also in my career I have encountered homosexual incidents and I acted in such a way that these situations would not happen again and those involved were relocated and employed in other areas.

Del Vecchio makes sure to mention, however, that he "never dismissed anybody from the army for being gay." He just shipped them off to lands unknown..

Italy's Democratic party has some competition. Politicos and activists from the Communist and Green parties announced plans this week to court the queer vote:

In an interview for the newspaper Il Giornale, the outgoing speaker of Italy’s parliament, Fausto Bertinotti, announced that the Rainbow Left, a coalition of Italian Communists and the Green party, will challenge the Democratic Party for the votes of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transsexuals.

Bertinotti, leader of the red-green coalition, stated, “The Rainbow Left will bring to parliament a significant gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual presence…Our candidates include a significant number of individuals of these different sexual orientations and affections.”

The Rainbow Left has a lot of work to do, however: an estimated 50% of homos vote for the Democratic party.

Italian Premier Romano Prodi resigned today after Parliament gave him "no confidence". Gays loved the politician because he pushed for equal rights, despite the fact that the Pope would eat his brains as punishment.

Pope Benedict XVI used his New Year's message to spread some old, exclusionary dogma:

Tens of thousands gathered in Madrid and Vatican City for Catholic rallies promoting traditional families on Sunday.

Pope Benedict XVI addressed the crowd in St Peter's Square in his last Angelus prayer of 2007 which was broadcast on a giant TV screen for throngs who had come to Madrid's Plaza de Colon to hear him.
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In Spanish the Pope said that the family is "based on the unbreakable union of man and woman and represents the privileged environment where human life is welcomed and protected from the beginning to its natural end."

The remarks were greeted with a massive cheer in Madrid.

"It is worthwhile to work for the family and marriage because it is worthwhile to work for the human being, the most precious being created by God," he said.

Except for us gay folk. We're apparently worthless.

There's a battle brewing in Italy. And health minister Livia Turco may be caught in the crossfire.

The drama began when a journalist went undercover as a gay man and investigated "reparative therapist" Tonino Cantelmi, the head of the Association of Catholic Italian Psychologists and Psychiatrists.

The journalist's report raised a lot of eyebrows in Italy, particularly among enthusiastic conservatives:

Paola Binetti, a neurophsychiatrist and Democratic party lawmaker associated with the Teodem movement, praised Cantelmi for his "excellent work."

Binetti argued: “Until the 1980s, homosexuality was classified as a pathology. While the homosexual lobby succeeded in changing this, clinical evidence supports the previous classification.”

Gay group Aricay disagrees and have called on Turco to come out against reparative therapy. Turco has yet to do so, but her opposition may garner her some political enemies. Parliamentarian Mauro Fabris calls anti-Cantelmi criticism a "hateful attempt to accuse the Catholic Church of homophobia.” Um, okay…

A Senegalese man got his non-denominational holiday wish!

The Italian high court overruled a lower court's deportation order:

[The court] has ruled that a gay illegal immigrant from Senegal can remain in Italy for now, and ordered a judge to examine the man's claim that he faces persecution in Senegal based on his sexual orientation.
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The new ruling said "homosexuality is a condition of the human being deserving legal protection" and "sexual freedom must be construed as freedom to live without interference and restrictions with reference to sexual preferences."

How long until the right wing launches a crusade against the "protective" judiciary?