By Hilary White
ROME, June 14, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Italian Department of Equal Opportunities has issued a report calling for “maximum efforts of law enforcement” against “homophobic” violence. The ministry has called for “the first corporate campaign to raise awareness against homophobia and gender discrimination” and is urging Parliament to support a new law on the issue.
The campaign, which will cost an estimated two million Euros, will include TV spots and thousands of brochures to be distributed in schools.
The Minister for Equal Opportunities, Mara Carfagna, called for the government “as soon as possible” to bring “unanimous support to a law to counteract the violence caused by discrimination.”
“Homophobia has no color, it is not confined only to certain areas of the country,” she said, “and can be defeated only with the commitment of all.”
The group Radici Christiane (Christian Roots) responded to the proposal saying that the “vast majority” of Italians and Parliamentarians of the ruling Popolo della Liberta party are opposed to the social and legal legitimization of homosexuality.
Radici Christiane said the move by the Department of Equal Opportunities highlights the need for Italians “to be formed” to respond to the claims of the homosexualist movement, and to be “convinced of the soundness of traditional morality.”
The group has called for a response from voters and is asking the public to contact the Department of Equal Opportunities to express their concerns.
In Italy, the movement to create legal recognition of homosexual activity is more openly a movement of the extreme left than in English-speaking countries. In 1986, the Inter-parliamentary Women’s Communist group and Arcigay, the national homosexualist lobby, raised the issue of homosexual civil unions in the Italian parliament. A succession of bills were introduced through the 1990s, but all died at the committee stage.
Since the election in 2008 of the latest Berlusconi government, a group of MPs announced they would bring legislation before Parliament, but public opposition to legal same-sex unions remains high. A 2006 Eurobarometer survey showed that only 31 per cent of Italians supported such unions, compared with the EU average of 44 per cent.
The move in Italy follows a trend seen in other Western countries, where the governments are increasingly using the power of legislation, particularly under the auspices of “anti-discrimination,” to push the homosexualist movement’s doctrines in schools.
To contact the Department of Equal Opportunities
infostampa@pariopportunita.gov.it
Read related LSN coverage:
Mandatory Curriculum for Ontario Schools Promotes Homosexuality, Masturbation
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/mar/10030216.html
Obama’s “Safe Schools” Czar Dreamed of “Promoting Homosexuality” to Schoolchildren
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09061113.html