At Rome’s Pleasure celebration, bare-chested males in pink angel wings danced to Abba songs, girls wrapped in rainbow flags kissed, and shimmering drag queens waved from parade floats. After which there was Pope Francis.
The pontiff’s picture was in all places. On cardboard cutouts adorned with flower necklaces, on glittery banners, on stickers. Romans got here to the Pleasure parade on Saturday dressed like Francis, sporting papal hats and T-shirts that learn, “There’s by no means an excessive amount of frociaggine,” a reference to an offensive slur against gay men that the pope has been accused of using twice in current weeks.
The slur “is the slogan of the 2024 Pleasure,” stated Martina Lorina, 28, an actress who was holding up a banner bearing the phrase.
After Italian media reported that Pope Francis used the slur at a gathering with clergymen to complain that there was an excessive amount of “gayness” within the church, the Vatican apologized.
However Rome’s Pleasure attendees took a unique tack to reply to the insult: They made it their very own. Pleasure individuals symbolically invited the pope and his slur to the get together, utilizing a longtime tactic of the L.G.B.T.Q. neighborhood to show insults into phrases of satisfaction.
“Let’s make him really feel how lovely this frociaggine is,” a participant shouted within the crowd as males dressed as unicorns sang a Britney Spears track and kids held arms with their two moms, their faces coated in glittery rainbows.
Daniele Lacitignola, 34, who’s Christian and homosexual, was carrying a cardboard cutout of Francis. He stated that despite the fact that the pope’s current phrase selection would possibly convey that “homosexual persons are not welcome within the church, he’s at all times welcome to Pleasure.”
“Francy you might be welcome in our parish,” a banner learn.
“Let me pose along with his holiness,” Alessio Sposato, 31, in a tank high and cowboy hat, stated as he took {a photograph} with a cardboard cutout of Francis.
Emiliano Sisolfi, 22, a director, carried a banner with {a photograph} of Francis along with his thumb up and the phrases, “I bless this frociata,” one other utilization of the slur. Mr. Sisolfi stated that he printed the insult in rainbow letters to neutralize it.
“If I chortle concerning the phrase,” he stated, “they don’t have any extra phrases to offend us.”
Giacomo Canarezza, 31, stated that even when the slur was derogatory, “If I take possession of the phrase, I can use it as a marker of my identification.”
He added, “It makes you immune from any insult.”
One other Pleasure attendee, with a pink glowing beard, wore a papal hat as he danced to “Greased Lightnin’” on high of a parade float.
“We’re the frociaggine and we’re happy with it,” a banner learn. Members distributed stickers with doctored pictures of Francis in a furry pink scarf or in pink sun shades.
However behind the jokes and the fanfare, some Romans have expressed issues that the pope’s phrases might additional marginalize the L.G.B.T.Q. neighborhood in a rustic that along with Hungary, the Czech Republic and a handful of others is among the many solely European nations that haven’t legalized same-sex marriage.
Final 12 months, the right-wing authorities of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni ordered Italian mayors to obey a court ruling and stop certifying foreign birth certificates of youngsters born overseas to Italian same-sex {couples} by way of surrogacy, which is illegitimate in Italy.
“Many in Italy take heed to the pope and church, and this could harm households who’ve homosexual kids,” stated Basilio Petruzza, 33.
A 20-year-old artist who goes by the identify Dolly Deville stated he ordered a papal gown on-line just a few days in the past to put on at Pleasure. He held a banner with a hand-drawn portrait of Francis and the phrases, “By way of Frocis” — a reference to By way of Crucis, or Approach of the Cross, a Christian procession. He stated the pope’s phrases had triggered him ache.
“He ought to shouldn’t have dared to say this phrase,” stated his boyfriend, Edoardo Camillucci. “Particularly as a straight holy man.”