LGBT group defends gay sex version of The Last Supper
An LGBT group which sparked outrage by creating a gay sex-filled version of The Last Supper to advertise an event has defended the decision.
The picture used by DiverCity, an LGBT organisation in Salerno, in south Italy, features Jesus and his 12 disciples in various forms of undress, kissing and even engaged in oral sex.
Conservative political parties have expressed outrage at the artwork, especially since it was created to promote a meeting which honours Holy Thursday.
Also known as Maundy Thursday, today is the day Christians commemorate the Last Supper, and DiverCity is doing the same – just with cocktails.
Fabio Mammone, deputy coordinator of Forza Italia – the second incarnation of a centre-right party led by Silvio Berlusconi, four-time Prime Minister of Italy – called for “the cancellation of the evening”.
“The organisers are misplaced and disrespectful,” he fumed.
Raffaele Adinolfi, the local representative of Il Popolo della Famiglia (The People of the Family) – a conservative party founded last month after same-sex unions were legalised – said the event represented the “killing of good taste”.
Adinolfi, whose party is against same-sex marriage, abortion, divorce and surrogacy, called DiverCity “some profanity animator of youth nightlife” whose defence of being “alternative, not blasphemous” he said was “incomprehensible.”
He called the image “offensive and an alternative to just one thing: good taste.
“It would be nice if the owners and managers cancelled the evening out of respect to the whole community and its traditions – that respect that minorities demand but often are not willing to concede.
“We at Il Popolo della Famiglia can only publicly express our outrage and invite all of Salerno, believers and nonbelievers, to do the same,” he added.
But Emanuele Avagliano, an organiser of DiverCity, defended the event at Caffe Verdi today, and quelled any talk of it being called off.
Writing on Facebook, he said: “We want to reaffirm our respect for others’ opinions, but equally we reiterate with force and conviction our freedom to live and enjoy ourselves as we see fit.”
Avagliano said the group wanted to emphasise that the picture was “intended to be neither blasphemous, offensive, nor disrespectful”.
“That said, we are sorry to note that ‘Il Popolo della Famiglia’ again, having no themes available, has used LGBT character arguments at the expense of the many gay men, lesbian girls and transgender persons”.
He added that “we invite all, then, to participate on Thursday with even more strength and belief than usual, to reclaim an area of freedom, a space of expression and entertainment essential for gay boys and girls and trans people of our city”.
“Our colours, our smiles and our hearts can not and should not be limited by people who hide behind political racism and homophobia.”
Last year, judges in Italy ruled that calling someone a homosexual isn’t offensive, while earlier this year, a court in Trento recognised a gay couple as the legal parents of children born to a surrogate.
However, another court decided in January that a 13-year-old boy must attend “youth community” for 12 hours daily after he was deemed too “effeminate”.
Last week, scientists at the site of Pompeii, which was destroyed when Mount Vesuvius erupted 2,000 years ago, discovered that two famous huddled victims – previously known as ‘The Two Maidens’ – were men, and could have been gay lovers.
