The mayor of Venice has declared that Pride parades will be banned from the Italian city while he is in power.
“There will never be a Gay Pride in my city,” Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro told a local newspaper. “Let them go and do it in Milan, or in front of their own homes.”
The regions Pride parade is held in a different city each year but the newly elected mayor has made it clear that when it is Venice’s turn to host, LGBTI celebrations will not be welcome.
The mayor said that pride parades were “the ultimate in kitsch” and described them as a joke.
It’s not the first time Brugnaro has shown his dislike of the LGBTI community. Shortly after he was elected he order 49 books to be removed from libraries for containing content relating to homosexuality.
The book ban lead to a public feud with singer Elton John, who has a house in the city. The Mayor said it was unnatural for children to be raised by two people of the same gender.
Bugnaro suggested that Elton John, who has two adopted children, should not get involved in the cities business.
“Parents will take care of our children. The family with two women and the little boy is unnatural,” Mayor Bugnaro said.
Gay rights activists in Italy have been critical of the statements noting that the Mayor does not own the city.
“Venice is not his city,” Flavio Romani, president of Italian gay rights group Arcigay, told Reuters.
“At the moment he is governing it, but he won’t last long given the fool he is making of himself.”
Graeme Watson
