Italian gays will
hold public ''kiss-ins'' near the Colosseum this week
to protest the detention of two men by police for kissing in
front of the famous Rome monument, gay rights groups
said.
Some lawmakers
said they would discuss the incident in parliament, while
gay rights groups accused the police of discrimination
Saturday.
There were
contradictory versions of the events that led to the
detention.
Police confirmed
the two men were held for about 40 minutes early Friday
and released after being reported for committing lewd acts
in public--a crime that can carry a sentence of
up to two years in jail.
The two were
''not just kissing,'' and the officers would have detained
the couple also if it had been a heterosexual one, police
official Col. Alessandro Casarsa said.
''They acted
because there was a couple that was committing a lewd act in
front of one of the most viewed monuments in Italy,''
Casarsa said without elaborating. ''We apply the law
to all in the same way, men and women.''
Arcigay, the main
Italian gay rights group, hired a lawyer for the couple
and identified the men as Roberto L. and Michele M., saying
that the two, aged 27 and 28, had only shared a
gesture of affection after a night out in the gay bars
that line one of the streets near the Colosseum.
''Roberto and
Michele were only kissing, all other statements are
false,'' the group said in a statement.
Arcigay said it
would hold its protest near the Colosseum on Thursday,
while another group, the Mario Mieli Club, scheduled a rally
of public kissing in front of the 2,000-year-old arena
for Sunday night.
Vladimir Luxuria,
a Communist politician and Italy's first transvestite
lawmaker, was one of the representatives saying she would
call on the government to explain the incident in
parliament.
''It's worrying
that a gesture of affection is considered a crime,'' she
told La Repubblica daily. ''It's absurd that
two young people who love each other should spend the night
in a police station without having done anything
obscene.''
While enraged by
the detention, gay rights groups hailed as a victory a
decision Friday by Italy's highest criminal court
recognizing that gay people who migrate
clandestinely to Italy should not be sent back to
their country if they could face persecution, news reports
said.
Italian dailies
reported that the Court of Cassation, ruling on the
expulsion order for a Senegalese immigrant, did not allow
the man to stay but ordered a judge to reexamine his
case and verify his claim that he would be persecuted
at home. (Ariel David, AP)
