In Italy Gays Start Their Own party for Next Elections

 BY DANIELE GUIDO GESSA

Photo courtesy of Gay Center, Rome.

Italian LGBT activsts are taking homophobic politicians head-on by forming their own gay political party.

It will compete in local and national elections and is going to be organized by Rome’s Gay Center, a group of activists in the capital of the country.

The news has been released, today, by the left-wing magazine L’Espresso, which reports that the discussions in the gay association are ‘advanced’.

Italy’s general elections – for parliament and government – will be in 2013. The Gay Center plans to present the party's symbol, probably next month, and start preparing to run for office in these elections.

According to L’Espresso, the political movement will be part of the Italian ‘antipolitica’. The recent local elections have showned the victory of new parties which claim to be ‘totally new’ and want to reform Italian politics, reducing the cost to the taxpayer.

One of these parties, Beppe Grillo’s Movimento 5 Stelle, which was born on Facebook, won its first mayors on Monday (21 May). So, according to the left-wing magazine, the new ‘gay party’ is going to follow the same ideas.

Young politicians with no links with ‘the old elephants’ of Italian politics and loads of social networking and new communication strategies characterize the new wave. The ‘gay party’ is said to be surfing this wave.

Gay Center’s spokesman, Fabrizio Marrazzo, said: ‘As the new survey by Istituto Nazionale di Statistica showed, almost half of Italians are in favour of gay marriage, but our politicians deny it. It’s time to change their minds.’  gaystarnews.com