Gay Colonialism
Vlad on the job and, below, at ease
The question about to be addressed is not at all important, and “Upper Italy” realizes that, but we think it needs to be, ah, reported.
The Honorable Vladimir Luxuria, a member of Parliament and Italy’s best-known political drag queen, has announced that he or she intends to visit a series of Islamic capitals as an “ambassador” for homosexual rights. Mr/s. Luxuria’s most recent public battle – related (here) – had to do with his or her insistence on using the ladies’ room at Montecitorio, the seat of Italy’s Chamber of Deputies, in spite of possessing certain formally male physiological characteristics. We are not quite sure how that actually turned out in the end because the issue, after coming to a head, immediately died the journalistic death it deserved.
At any rate, Luxuria expects to start with Turkey, a relatively easy target since homosexuality is not in fact illegal in the country. He/she then plans to move on to Egypt, where we imagine the bemusement on the part of Moslem authorities might start to set in. That visit is to be followed by trips to Tunisia and Lebanon. Iran though will wait for the moment since, as Mr/s. Luxuria pointed out in an interview with the Israeli daily Haaretz, “You can’t make a big impact straight away,” and Saudi Arabia too appears to be out for now because “Imposing our model would just be gay colonialism.”
He/she has a specific strategy which involves approaching ministers of Culture, rather than the Justice or Interior ministers who might seem to be the more logical interested parties, because the first are “most open on the issue.” And it will all be done “without feather boas or drag costumes, but as a parliamentarian.”
As we have mentioned elsewhere, Luxuria was elected to Parliament in the lists of Rifondazione comunista – Italy’s “Refounded” Communist
Party – with the apparent intent of demonstrating that Stalinism can still be “hip.” So it is no great surprised that he/she is far more concerned about Islamic homophobia than, say, that in Cuba, where such deviation can be punished with jail and hard labor. As he/she sees it, that is a problem that might take care of itself anyway. When news of Fidel Castro’s hospitalization emerged, Luxuria immediately expressed a personal preference for the succession: “Not his brother Raul; his niece Mariela would be much better. She proposed a law that would allow all Cubans to change sex. With an operation paid for by the State, of course.”
So far, none of the governments Mr/s. Luxuria expects to visit have actually replied to his/her proposal to drop by.