ROME (AFP) — Tens of thousands took to the streets of Athens, Rome and Warsaw for Gay Pride parades Saturday, drawing attention to the fact that many homosexuals in Europe still do not enjoy the same rights as heterosexuals.
At the national level, the political climate does not look any more promising for gay rights in Italy as new Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative coalition shares close ties with the Vatican.
"With the right in power, Gay Pride is becoming a demonstration for freedom and against authoritarianism," said Franco Grillini, also an ex-deputy from the left and founder of the homosexual rights group Arcigay.
In Athens however, the mood was more uplifting as some 2,000 gays and lesbians took to the streets only four days after the country's first same-sex marriages.
On Tuesday, the socialist mayor of the small island of Tilos in the southeast Aegean Sea took advantage of a legal loophole and married two couples, one of women and one of men.
A judge in Rhodes, on which Tilos depends, immediately asked the mayor to annul the marriages and launched a preliminary investigation into a possible case against the elected official for breach of office.
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(Rome) Rome police are searching for members of a mob of youths who burst into the city's LGBT center, ransacking the building.
The attack on Mario Mieli Homosexual Cultural Circle occurred Thursday night while members were in the building.
As they attempted to confront the gang the youths yelled anti-gay and anti-Semitic slogans. As they ran off the gang yelled praises for Benito Mussolini, Italy's wartime dictator.
"We fear that this situation is linked to the electoral climate," the association said in a statement.
Rome is in the midst of a mayoral runoff between rightist and leftist candidates.
Earlier this week Silvio Berlusconi became Prime Minister when his rightwing coalition swept national elections.
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