EGN NEWS DESK
At Rome’s Pride celebration, bare-chested males in pink angel wings danced to Abba songs, ladies wrapped in rainbow flags kissed, and shimmering drag queens waved from parade floats. And then there was Pope Francis.
The pontiff’s picture was all over the place. On cardboard cutouts adorned with flower necklaces, on glittery banners, on stickers. Romans got here to the Pride parade on Saturday dressed like Francis, sporting papal hats and T-shirts that learn, “There isn’t an excessive amount of frociaggine,” a reference to an offensive slur towards homosexual males that the pope has been accused of utilizing twice in latest weeks.
The slur “is the slogan of the 2024 Pride,” mentioned Martina Lorina, 28, an actress who was holding up a banner bearing the phrase.
After Italian media reported that Pope Francis used the slur at a gathering with monks to complain that there was an excessive amount of “gayness” within the church, the Vatican apologized.
But Rome’s Pride attendees took a special tack to reply to the insult: They made it their very own. Pride members symbolically invited the pope and his slur to the party, utilizing a longtime tactic of the L.G.B.T.Q. group to show insults into phrases of pleasure.
“Let’s make him really feel how lovely gayness is,” a participant shouted within the crowd as males dressed as unicorns sang a Britney Spears tune and kids held arms with their two moms, their faces lined in glittery rainbows.
Daniele Lacitignola, 34, who’s Christian and homosexual, was carrying a cardboard cutout of Francis. He mentioned that though the pope’s latest phrase alternative would possibly convey that “homosexual individuals are not welcome within the church, he’s at all times welcome to Pride.”
“Francy you’re welcome in our parish,” a banner learn.
“Let me pose together with his holiness,” Alessio Sposato, 31, in a tank high and cowboy hat, mentioned as he took {a photograph} with a cardboard cutout of Francis.
Emiliano Sisolfi, 22, a director, carried a banner with {a photograph} of Francis together with his thumb up and one other utilization of the slur. Mr. Sisolfi mentioned he printed the insult in rainbow letters to neutralize it.
“If I chuckle concerning the phrase,” he mentioned, “they haven’t any extra phrases to offend us.”
Giacomo Canarezza, 31, mentioned that even when the slur was derogatory, “If I take possession of the phrase, I can use it as a marker of my id.”
He added, “It makes you immune from any insult.”
Banners all through the parade related the slur with expressions of pleasure and pleasure. A Pride attendee, with a pink glowing beard, wore a papal hat as he danced to “Greased Lightnin’” on high of a parade float, and others distributed stickers with doctored images of Francis in a furry pink scarf or in pink sun shades.
But behind the jokes and the fanfare, some Romans have expressed issues that the pope’s phrases might additional marginalize the L.G.B.T.Q. group in a rustic that along with Hungary, the Czech Republic and a handful of others is among the many solely European ones that haven’t legalized same-sex marriage.
Last yr, the right-wing authorities of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni ordered Italian mayors to obey a courtroom ruling and cease certifying international start certificates of kids born overseas to Italian same-sex {couples} by means of surrogacy, which is prohibited in Italy.
“Many in Italy hearken to the pope and church, and this will damage households who’ve homosexual youngsters,” mentioned Basilio Petruzza, 33.
A 20-year-old artist who goes by the title Dolly Deville mentioned he ordered a papal gown on-line just a few days in the past to put on at Pride. He held a banner with a hand-drawn portrait of Francis, and mentioned the pope’s phrases had brought on him ache.
“He shouldn’t have dared to say this phrase,” mentioned his boyfriend, Edoardo Camillucci. “Especially as a straight holy man.”
