Italian Senate Speaker Ignazio La Russa has come under fire for saying that he would be saddened if one of his children came out as gay in an interview with Rai television.
A member of the right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, he said it would be like having a son who is different than he. “A heterosexual father would want his son to be like him”.
In the same interview, which is set to be screened on Tuesday, he said that “the aesthetic level of right-wing women has fallen, while their quality, their capability, has increased”.
Opposition politicians expressed indignation at the comments. “The State’s second-highest official has insulted women and homosexuals,” Alessandra Moretti, an MEP for the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), said via Twitter.
“Rights are at great risk with this government. I say to La Russa that all children are equal: simply children.
Whatever their sexual orientation, the colour of their skin or their religious beliefs”.
Senator Silvia Fregolent of the centrist Azione/Italia Viva/Renew Europe group, said La Russa had “forgotten” that he was the State’s second highest official and “pulled off the miraculous feat of expressing himself inadequately about women and homosexuals in the same interview.
“I don’t know whether to hope that the Senate Speaker’s comments are fruit of the desire to make a joke of everything or they really match his thoughts,” Fregolent said. “Either way, we should be worried”.
After the furor broke out, La Russa stressed that having a gay son would only sadden him a “little ” and would not be a problem.
