Right-wing party leads huge anti-Gay demo in Rome by Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer

The right-wing Northern League party led a huge anti-Gay demonstration in Rome on June 21. Estimates put the crowd at between 300,000 and one million people.

The center-left coalition that governs Italy has proposed legislation to allow same-sex civil unions, and the right - reportedly allied with the Vatican - organized the protest to oppose recognition of same-sex relationships and the teaching of gender theories in Italian schools.

Assembling in San Giovanni Square in the center of Rome - and perhaps symbolically, in front of San Giovanni in Laterano, the church that belongs to the Pope as Bishop of Rome - right-wing protestors held banners reading The family will save the world and Lets defend our children.

Protest organizers said they were not tied to the Catholic Church, even though their rhetoric matched calls from church officials to reject marriage and gender equality.

We are asking for families based on marriage be respected, and stressing the central role parents play, said Massimo Gandolfini, spokesperson for the Defend Our Children committee. We forcefully reject the attempt to sneak into the curriculum projects which aim to destroy childrens sexual identities.

Matteo Salvini, head of the Northern League party, posted a Facebook hug for all the mummies and daddies protesting peacefully in Rome to defend their childrens future.

On the other hand, Vincenzo Brana of the Arcigay LGBT rights organization in Bologna, was quick to point out that [June 21] is World Refugee Day, with hundreds of thousands of migrants in Italy facing an uncertain future.

Their problems are an urgent issue which concerns us all, Brana said. Those who take to the streets to talk of other things show they are living on another planet, and I would recommend leaving them on that planet alone.

A survey published by Italian daily La Stampa at the end of May found that 51% of Italian voters would support same-sex marriage.

Only days before the demonstration, Pope Francis made headlines with statements seemingly accusing Transgender people of rejecting God.

[V]aluing ones own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different, the Pope said.

In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It is not a healthy attitude which would seek to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it.

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