This week Giuseppe Ripa, deputy mayor of Lecce, Italy, attacked Nichi Vendola, the openly gay governor of Apulia, in a posting on Facebook.
As the Herald Sun reports:
In nature, there exist only two types human beings: the man and the woman,” [Ripa] wrote.
The rest were psychiatric cases apt for psychoanalytic treatment, said Ripa, a member of Silvio Berlsuconi’s People of Freedom party.
In his January 8 post, Ripa also called Vendola, a member of the liberal Democratic Party and a former LGBT activist, “abnormal.”
Y’know there’s something awful lame about spewing vile attacks on Facebook. It’s like standing behind your dad while you tease the neighbor’s kid.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Lecce’s mayor (a.k.a. Ripa’s boss) Paolo Perrone quickly condemned the comments.
I like to practice politics by debating with my adversaries on the issues, not on the sexual preferences of this or that person, which are a matter of one’s private life,” he wrote in his own Facebook posting.
We’re still not fans of laws infringing the freedom of speech, though—how about just making sure Ripa doesn’t get re-elected?
Photo: Tango7174
Triple S
I really hate it when people think they’re cool when they attack on Facebook. It is indeed the very essence of being lame!
Mike in Asheville
Geez, the Italians are pretty thin-skinned, and the insult is so very amateurish too.
I mean, here, several of the GOP presidential candidates regularly rant about us being dog fucking pedophiles, worse than rapists and murders, military gays will be gang-raping GIs/sailors in the showers, a convicted murderer on death row is a preferable parent than a second mom, etc.
There is a nasty side effect to limiting a citizens freedom of speech: when they take to media/Internet/Twitter spewing their bigotry, we all learn who the bigot enemies are. Why should the government prevent an ass from making an ass of himself. From the Italian reactions, it certainly seems that this smuck is no known to be a smuck; isn’t that better than him continuing his closeted discriminative actions against lgbt rights?
So long as the speech is not a real threat of violence or an on-going act of harassment, I think that freedom of speech is stronger by not infringing of someone’s right to state the texts quoted above.
Phantom
Instead of boot in his mouth, boot his ass off the office.
Alex, UK
Beautiful country, but in terms of social liberty Italy is one of the most backwards western European countries 🙁
Not just for queer people but also for women – not to mention the impossibility for young people to find jobs (if your family is not well connected or has several members in the ordine)…
andrea
My dad’s from Lecce… In fact, I just got back from there a few days ago after visiting relatives for a little bit. My great uncle tends to make fun of Nichi whenever he’s on TV. Pretty sure he’s a decent homophobe, although I don’t know for sure to what degree. Sigh.
@Alex Absolutely spot on.
Mike
Isn’t Lecce that town where all the kids stood on the hill and wanted to share a Coke with the world? This guy’s comments aren’t very harmonious!