As Swedish gays fight an underground war, Italian conservatives are fighting a battle of the umbilical variety. Tuscany’s local government caused a stir this week when they unveiled a new tolerance campaign
Posters of a rosy, puffy cheeked newborn baby have provoked controversy in Italy because the infant is shown wearing a wristband name-tag with the word “homosexual” written on it.
The photograph of the baby is part of a anti-discrimination campaign launched by Tuscany’s regional government and is accompanied by the slogan: “Sexual orientation is not a choice.”
“Homosexuality is not a vice and hence should not be condemned nor marginalised, or worse still persecuted,” [said Tuscany’s] civil rights councillor Agostino Fragai.
While Fragai supports the campaign, parliamentarian Lucio Volonte’s crowing foul…
Says Volonte, “Exploiting newborns to suggest that homosexual tendencies are innate is a misleading and shameful act.” Volonte goes on to say the posters are too “biology-based”. “Of course for a homosexual it is natural to be gay, but I’m not too sure it is determined by genetics.”
Rt. Rev. Dr. RES
We love babies. We are same sex married men with children. Our paternal instincts are intact. We are not emulating others. Rather, we are equal members of the human race.
Also, we are also part of a growing gay-by boom generation of men and women who use surrogacy and adoption (AS DO MANY OPPOSITE SEX COUPLES) to create families and provide and nurture their families,.
In Europe, where marriage or rights are legal, then the last vestige of control over us was the issue of children. The Christofascists know that when we win the “Family Values arguement” that the game is over for them.
Dawster
“Of course for a homosexual it is natural to be gay, but I’m not too sure it is determined by genetics.â€
huh????
querpasticciaccio
yeah, well. That Volontè guy is famous for being beyond any logic.
That’s the original picture of the campaign:
http://www.gay.it/channels/mostra.php?view=26949
Rt. Rev. Dr. RES
Statistics prove that we raise gay and lesbian children in the same percentages as do heterosexuals.
Our offspring, whether gay or straight, and probably the latter, will be tolerant of all familial definitions in the world.
Matt
querpasticciaccio, thank you for the link to the original poster. Aw, it’s so adorable! (Of course, if they could really tag sexual orientation on newborns, the fundies would be in maternity wards across the US doing the baby seal thing)
WWH
Who cares WHY we are gay. The important thing is THAT we are gay and we deserve equal protection and rights under the law. Period.
Rt. Rev. Dr. RES
SPOT ON WWH. That very sentiment is law in Canada and we hope that someday it will be true with you, too.
Gregg
Legally, yes, it does not matter why we are gay or straight or whatever. We deserve equal protection and rights.
But scientifically, it is still a valid question: What determines sexuality? I hope they do find an answer one day – not so we can have legal rights, but because as a curious human being I would like to know the answer.
dk
idiots, genetics statement was made by Gianni Vattimo, Italy’s leading gay philosopher/politician, not Volonte
dk
Gianni Vattimo, an Italian philosopher, gay rights activist and European Parliament member described the campaign “excessive”.
The slogan “is too biology-centric. Of course for a homosexual it is natural to be gay, but I’m not too sure it is determined by genetics”, Vattimo said.