It’s always special when an all-time great supports his local queens.
Ciro Immobile, who’s captain of the Italian national soccer team and one of the best players in the country’s history, was a guest judge on the most recent episode of Drag Race Italia. The highest scoring active Serie A player appeared alongside his wife, influencer Jessica Melena.
Immediately, Immobile’s comfort level with the queens was evident. He appeared in the “werk room” following their runway presentations, and took their good-natured flirtations in stride.
“What a handsome man! Having someone like you here is very important for us,” says Silvana della Magliani.
“We, along with all the drag family, want to thank you for your support and for your presence here,” added Melissa Bianchini, the first out transgender contestant ever on Drag Race Italia. “It means a lot, because that’s our intention, to bring the drag world to others.”
Then the queens presented Immobile with a beautiful red rose, because he’s “amazing.”
We agree!
The 33-year-old Lazio captain is the first straight sports star to appear on an episode of Drag Race. Out gay athletes Adam Rippon, Gus Kenworthy and Australian soccer player Josh Cavallo have previously sat beside RuPaul at the judge’s table.
Prior to Immobile’s appearance, multiple queens were invited to watch Inter Milan, one of Serie A’s marquee franchises, take on Bologna. They showed up at the stadium in full drag, going viral in the process.
🏟️ The #DragRaceItalia Season 3 queens recently attended Inter Milan’s 2-2 draw with Bologna in Serie A, attended by over 74,000 fans at the San Siro. Fans mobbed them for selfies.
— Sports Media LGBT+ (@SportsMediaLGBT) November 4, 2023
🗣️ “To be here doing what we do, we’ve demonstrated that we don’t lack courage” – Amy Krania https://t.co/ICzoyM8NiB
Immobile’s appearance on Drag Race Italia, the eighth international spin-off of the iconic franchise, comes at a fraught time for LGBTQ+ rights in Italy. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy party are chipping away at gay rights, notably with national restrictions against surrogacy. The thinking is that banning surrogacy will make it more difficult for gay couples to have children.
In addition, Italian city councils were directed earlier this year to stop including same-sex couples on birth certificates. Italy is one of the few nations in Western Europe where same-sex marriage is still illegal.
Those backdrops make Immobile’s stint on the show even more powerful.
“We’re happy you choose us to spread this message of freedom,” he told the queens.
Immobile’s outward embrace of drag culture stands in stark contrast to the recent behavior of Jordan Henderson, previously considered one of the biggest LGBTQ+ allies in the game. The ex-Liverpool captain signed with a Saudi Arabian club over the summer, throwing his gay fans under the bus for $15 million.
On social media, users weren’t shy about making the comparison.
This is so great, would love to see more players actually doing something beyond a symbolic gesture or posting a link here & there, and i had no idea that immobile is this friggin hot
— dan (@dengybad) November 4, 2023
As mentioned above, it’s one thing for pro athletes to talk about the LGBTQ+ community and wear supportive accessories, such as rainbow laces. But it’s far more impactful when players embrace gay spaces, which doesn’t happen often in the world of male pro sports.
We’d love to see Immobile keep leading the way on LGBTQ+ inclusion.
Frankly, we would like to see more of him, period. He’s a complete stud!
Immobile is used to putting the ball in the net, but in terms of LGBTQ+ allyship, his appearance on Drag Race was his biggest score yet.
dbmcvey
Very fun! And he is gorgeous!
abfab
CHE BELLO!
inbama
54 years after Stonewall and gushing over approval from a straight guy.
Drag and the down-low are not liberation.
abfab
Make your lame comments on a right wing conservative republican BLOG where you will find youself with people like yourself. @imbama, find a place where people might actually care about you, like a swamp in Alabama..oh you poor thing.
It’s no wonder why you are such a bitter bitch, all alone down there.
Baron Wiseman
@abflab
…said the diversity lover.
abfab
The standard line from a standard, straight troll. You’re brain dead.
inbama
@abfab
Nothing bitter about me; I’ve had a great life: I’m close with my family, I have loyal lifelong friends and until his death, a 43 year marriage/partnership.
Only on this blog have I had to deal with someone as dishonest and vile as you. That you aren’t really in my life is a blessing and a constant reminder how lucky I’ve been.
abfab
Save it.
dbmcvey
I’m sure any sense of joy summons inbama to come on here and type something hypocritical.
abfab
dbmcvey, @ibambam says there is nothing bitter about him. That’s funny.
Baron Wiseman
As usual, four out eight posts on this story are by a narcissist.
abfab
Five.
dbmcvey
I only see you and inbama. Who are the others?
SDR94103
the twinks emerge from the darkness with these comments.
edwardnvirginia
My my, if these or other LGBTQ+ ‘influencers’ and ‘thirst traps’ and ‘drag race’ freaks
would hire a plane, go to Egypt, and go to the gate into Gaza … to take the place of hostages held by diseased-ass Muslim terrorist org Hamas … and then actual do it
they might win a Nobel Prize for the queer people cause…
rather than all this self-righteous, self-glorifying self-image management.
What do you think Hamas does to drag queens? The idiots marching in the street who want Hamas to have control of everyone … should answer that question! So … what does Hamas do with drag queens, preening ‘thirst traps’, loud queer ‘influencers’, etc?
Kangol2
EdieinVirginny, you go, volunteer, and tell us how it all turned out, OK?
abfab
Who hires a plane? You buy a ticket. Oye vay, such a mess.
KM201
There’s a lot of reasons why this is so important for our community, but two are most obvious.
1) Ciro is doing this in a country with a very hostile, fascist government looking to attack our community and our rights there. Coupled with the fact that he plays for an extremely fascist and Mussolini loving soccer club and you have a guy with a lot of balls to send this message. We haven’t even seen the blowback yet, so this may negatively hamper his career. However, it will mean a lot for our struggle to pushback against the Meloni’s of the world who wish to do us harm. For that, he deserves kudos.
2) A lot of people have tried to attack us for going after Jordan Henderson for selling out our community (and women, and murdered journalists, and 9/11 victims families and anyone who posts criticisms of world leaders on social media) by playing for Mohammed Bone Saw’s fascist wannabe soccer league in Saudi Arabia. This proves that it doesn’t matter if we piss off supposed “allies” because we’re making new, and more important, allies all the time. If the blowback Henderson faced causes him to become hostile to our community, then he was never an “ally” in the first place. He’s just a poseur who was using us to advance his career and discarded us when it became convenient for him to do so. No water off our backs. He’ll be the one who suffers in the long run when his post soccer plans deteriorate after being blackballed from the entertainment industry. We won’t forget his betrayal and neither will British broadcasters.
inbama
Seems strange to worry about soccer players when the UK imported £3.4bn of fossil fuels from Saudi Arabia, £2.6bn from Kuwait, £2.5bn from the UAE and a whopping £6.9bn from Qatar,.
Speaking of Qatar,, Abu Marzuk, deputy chair of the Hamas Political Bureau and senior Hamas leaders Khaled Mashal and Ismail Haniyeh all live there in luxury with their families. Each has a net worth over 3 billion.
abfab
KM201 brought us his inspired and educated critiques. A breath of fresh air!
The only thing that ”seems strange”around here @ibambam is you and your bitter, boring vitriol and ignorant claims.
dbmcvey
I love it when conservative trolls bring something up that they don’t really care about to try to own the libs.
inbama
How sad when assflab couldn’t come up with something clever, she returns five hours later as her sockpuppet dbmcvey – and makes another lame statement lacking insight or wit.
She’s like a character out of “Boys In The Band” if it had been written by Donald Trump, Jr., bless her heart.