NEW YORK, JUNE 28 – Every country has its Stonewall moment. For Italy, the turning point in the struggle for LGBTI rights happened in Sanremo, April 5 1972. On that day, demonstrators turned up to protest against the the International Sexology Congress organized by the Centro Italiano di Sessuologia. The meeting at Sanremo’s Casinò Matutia was convened to discuss ‘deviant behaviors in human sexuality’, with particular reference to homosexuality. The protest against psychiatric condemnation of homosexual conduct and the use of conversion therapy was mentioned today by the Italian Deputy Permanent Representative, Stefano Stefanile, during a “challenge” of members of the United Nations LGBTI Core Group to tell national stories and reaffirm their support for diversity and LGBTI equality.
“That day, demonstrators turned up against a sexology congress, and specifically against some theories considering homosexuality as an illness or a distorted behavior. This legacy reminds us on the importance of working together for a world based on inclusivity where everyone can live free and equal. This is even more meaningful today, as we work to recover better from the pandemic, which has exacerbated inequalities and generated the rise of discrimination and social exclusion of LBGTI people”, Stefanile said in a message posted on Twitter.
June is Pride Month around the world based on the Stonewall riots in NYC in 1969. A series of spontaneous demonstrations by members of the gay community were held in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Patrons of the Stonewall, other Village lesbian and gay bars, and neighborhood street people fought back when the police became violent. The riots are widely considered a watershed event that transformed the gay liberation movement and the twentieth-century fight for LGBTI rights in the United States. (@OnuItalia)
