No time for ex-gay conversion therapy? Just sleep with a whore and it’ll make you straight. At least that’s how it evidently works in some parts of Italy.
A gay chef in the seaside town of Rimini says he was told by his boss that he had to prove his heterosexuality by having sex with a prostitute — or he would lose his job.
Italy’s The Local reports that Arcigay, the country’s largest national gay rights organization, likened the incident to tactics used by the Nazis in World War II. “It’s forcing him by taking advantage of the need [to work], with threats of dismissal, to act cruelly against a person that only wants to do their work to earn a living,” said Marco Toni, founder of the organization’s Rimini branch, in an online statement.
David Sassoli, vice-president of the European Parliament, also spoke out about the incident, calling it a “horror” on Twitter.
How about we take this to the next level?
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We certainly wouldn’t condone such practices. However, if the chef looks anything like last year’s Mr. Gay Italia (pictured above), we’ll gladly volunteer to prove he’s not straight.
“Even if someone denies there’s homophobia in Italy, it certainly exists,” added Toni, , who asked local restaurants to consider hiring the chef as a way of showing their support.
Wherever he lands, we hope he’ll be choosy about the pasta he cooks with.
hyhybt
The other implications of this demand aren’t much better. If he thinks all straight men hire prostitutes, well, that certainly says more about him than his employees!
Kieran
“the country’s largest national gay rights organization, likened the incident to tactics used by the Nazis in World War II” *YAWN*
Who was it who said if you have to automatically dredge up the Nazis to make your argument you lose?
Clark35
Agreed Kieran.
Clark35
Italy is actually a country that’s not anti gay/bisexual/lesbian, or even anti-trans. But the writers at queerty wouldn’t know that.
DonW
@Clark35: The way a lot of knee-jerk “conservatives” resort to unfunny schoolyard insults like “libtard” is laughable.
Clark35
@DonW: I’m not a conservative at all. I am more of a moderate; but I do think it’s funny when people on either side get so blinded by their political agendas or dogma their party has.
grero
How far we’ve come… Of the first twenty Roman emperors, eighteen (or 90%!) had boyfriends on the side: http://grero.com/#_Toc347564531
Billy Budd
This happened to me when I was a consultant. My boss took me to a whorehouse and said that I should go inside and fuck a girl, to prove that I was a Man. I refused.
jwtraveler
@Clark35: “Moderate” is a euphemism for “don’t know enough to make up my mind but want to act like I care.”
tdx3fan
@jwtraveler: No actually it is more of a statement that both parties have rejected you because you refuse to tow either party line. I would definitely fit in there with the beliefs I have. The VAST majority of the country is moderate as well. I am anti-abortion and believe in the right of businesses to choose who they want to serve, but I am pro-gay marriage and most gay rights. That definitely puts me somewhere in the middle.
Bauhaus
@tdx3fan:
You believe, “it’s the right of businesses to choose who they want to serve.” That doesn’t make you a moderate, that makes you a bigot. Also, believing in “some” gay rights, puts you in the middle of a shit sandwich, as far as I’m concerned.
Bauhaus
@Clark35:
If you knew history, you’d know that gay men were sent to Nazi concentration camps. The survivors were often sent to prison again, as homosexuality was a crime. Also, gays were the only group not compensated for atrocities.
In order not to receive the dreaded pink triangle, men were forced to have sex with female prisoners (in front of guards) to prove their heterosexuality. The pink triangle was the lowest designators.
You may not be conservative, but you sure are a twit.
Billy Budd
@Bauhaus: I suggest you to read “The Pink Swastika” and “The Hidden Hitler”. Very illuminating stuff. Please notice that only effeminate gays were persecuted by nazis. “Macho” gays were left in peace. Ernst Rohm, one of Hitler’s greatest allies, was openly and aggressively gay.
hyhybt
@Billy Budd: I don’t know about Bauhaus, but when I read fiction, I prefer it not pretend to be fact.
onthemark
@Billy Budd: uh… Ernst Rohm was hardly “left in peace,” since he & his “macho” gay Brown Shirt buddies were brutally assassinated in 1934, shortly after Hitler gained power and they were no longer useful to him.
onthemark
@Billy Budd: Your comment is puzzling in other ways. Are you suggesting that “macho” gays were left in peace as long as they were non-political or made a show of being pro-Nazi? Do those books you recommend say so?
jwtraveler
@tdx3fan: Yes, it puts you right in the middle of self-interest. Freedom and rights for yourself; not for others.
Billy Budd
@onthemark: I argue that Hitler himself was a self-hating homosexual. Read the book (Hidden Hitler).
Chris
So what finally happened to the chef whose job was at risk? Did he lose it? Did he find another job elsewhere? Did he sue? Did he….. O wait a minute, those are questions for a real news article. I apologize; I forgot what I was reading.