Petrelis Files

Gay Italians Bringing 
'Fags' to the Prime Minister?

Mamma mia, get a load of what's happening in Italy tomorrow, in response to the country's top leader recently defaming gays to divert attention from another one of his sex scandals involving a teenage girl. First up, the poetic and jumbled official English translation from the organizers:

Arcigay Florence has launched the campaign “bring with you a fennel”. Tomorrow, Saturday, November 6th, from 4pm, in via Cavour 1, in front of the Prefecture of Florence, the grass roots will protest against the declaration of the Italian Prime Minister, Mr. Silvio Berlusconi, who said on Tuesday: “It is better to have a passion for beautiful girls than to be gay”. The Arcigay activists in Florence asks people attending the demonstration to bring with them a fennel “to be delivered to the Italian Premier”.

“Seeds of fennel” explain the members of Arcigay Florence, “were used in the Middle Ages to drive down the smell of human flesh of the homosexuals burnt at the stake. Tomorrow we’ll give back those fennels to Mr. Berlusconi, because we’re tired of being subjected to discriminations, humiliations and harassments, that every year in Italy overkill thousands of lesbians, gays and transsexuals”.

It's not just because my maternal grandparents emigrated from Italy that helps me emotionally bond with the Italian protesters. I feel political links with them, and heartily approve of their creative action, which is not only targeting the disgusting remarks of Berlusconi, but is also educating American gays like me about the use of fennel and the world's tortured history with homosexuals.

The web site for the chapter staging tomorrow's protest wasn't functional at the time I wrote this, but oddly enough Google translation service did link to the opening page and translated the word finocchio as fag. I guess Google hasn't yet figured out how to make its translation service politically correct:

Arcigay Florence started the operation "takes a fag to Silvio" the demonstrators who came to Florence tomorrow, Saturday, November 6, from 16 hours in a Via Cavour, in front of the Prefecture, for a sit-in protest against the outside Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi "better to be passionate about beautiful girls [than] gay", it is asked to bring a fag "to be delivered to the Head of Government."

Click here for the Google translation, once at the site, scroll down for the announcement on the the protest. Here's wishing the action goes well and that we all see some fabulous photos and videos from Florence tomorrow.