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<p class="MsoNormal">For the last couple of weeks, LGBT people in Italy has been facing a sudden rise in homophobic related attacks. ILGA-Europe received the following description of events from our member organisation, ArciLesbica Nazionale, and ealier today Amnesty International released a public statement of the situation in Italy. Read the statement below.</p>

<p>Written by: Helen Ibry, ArciLesbica Nazionale</p><p>
<b>22nd August: </b>in the night at the Gay Village in Rome a man, fed up with two gay man kissing, assaults them with glass bottle and tries to kill them with knife. They get severely hurt and one is still in hospital in critical conditions.<br />At the beninning the man gets denounced, but not arrested. Then, after many pressures, it gets arrested. As a probable answer to this:</p><p><b>25th August: </b>in the night the LGBT discopub Muccassassina in Rome is put on fire with gasoline and completely damaged: fortunately is was closed and nobody was in at the moment.</p><p><b>26th August: </b>Naples, in the night a couple of gay man get assaulted and insulted by a group of men in the street of the city center.</p><p>
<b>1st September , h. 23.40: </b>two paper bombs explode in the Gay Street, in San Giovanni in Laterano (Rome): a guy is hurt. If anyone was nearer, he/she would have risked life!<br />The right wing Mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, only say that there are actions of a few delinquents, but we all know that these are actions of harsh intolerance, hate crimes that in many cases are perpetrated by skinheaded guys.</p><p>The government keeps promoting only the legitimation of the traditional family (keeping a double moral for themselves), of heterosexual machos and ladys. They still haven’t realized any law to protect LGBT people and to recognize our rights. They are only talking about safety and putting police to LGBT places: so our community will get more scared and no concrete action against homophobia is put onward. The national mass media are minimizing the facts and silencing our voices.</p><p>This country needs laws and education policy to promote awareness, non-discrimination, inclusiveness.</p>

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