At Rome’s Pleasure celebration, bare-chested males in pink angel wings danced to Abba songs, girls wrapped in rainbow flags kissed, and shimmering drag queens waved from parade floats. After which there was Pope Francis.
The pontiff’s picture was in every single place. On cardboard cutouts adorned with flower necklaces, on glittery banners, on stickers. Romans got here to the Pleasure parade on Saturday dressed like Francis, carrying papal hats and T-shirts that learn, “There’s by no means an excessive amount of frociaggine,” a reference to an offensive slur against gay men that the pope has been accused of using twice in latest weeks.
The slur “is the slogan of the 2024 Pleasure,” 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.
However Rome’s Pleasure attendees took a unique tack to reply to the insult: They made it their very own. Pleasure individuals symbolically invited the pope and his slur to the get together, utilizing a longtime tactic of the L.G.B.T.Q. neighborhood to show insults into phrases of pleasure.
“Let’s make him really feel how stunning this frociaggine is,” a participant shouted within the crowd as males dressed as unicorns sang a Britney Spears track and kids held palms 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 may convey that “homosexual individuals are not welcome within the church, he’s all the time welcome to Pleasure.”
“Francy you might be welcome in our parish,” a banner learn.
“Let me pose together with his holiness,” Alessio Sposato, 31, in a tank prime 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 the phrases, “I bless this frociata,” one other utilization of the slur. Mr. Sisolfi mentioned that he printed the insult in rainbow letters to neutralize it.
“If I snort 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 identification.”
He added, “It makes you immune from any insult.”
One other Pleasure attendee, with a pink glowing beard, wore a papal hat as he danced to “Greased Lightnin’” on prime of a parade float.
“We’re the frociaggine and we’re happy with it,” a banner learn. Members distributed stickers with doctored pictures of Francis in a furry pink scarf or in pink sun shades.
However 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. neighborhood 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.
Final 12 months, the right-wing authorities of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni ordered Italian mayors to obey a court ruling and stop certifying foreign birth 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 Pleasure. He held a banner with a hand-drawn portrait of Francis and the phrases, “By way of Frocis” — a reference to By way of Crucis, or Manner of the Cross, a Christian procession. He mentioned the pope’s phrases had triggered him ache.
“He shouldn’t have dared to say this phrase,” mentioned his boyfriend, Edoardo Camillucci. “Particularly as a straight holy man.”
Source link
