Rome Drops Support for Gay Events

ROME —  Rome’s mayor said Monday that he was yanking the city’s sponsorship of July’s Gay Pride events, which the Vatican doesn’t want taking place during the Holy Year called by Pope John Paul II.

The decision follows an appeal by a top Italian cardinal to move the event elsewhere. Prime Minister Giuliano Amato has called the scheduling of Gay Pride week during Holy Year “inopportune” and added that “unfortunately,” Italy’s constitution doesn’t allow the gathering to be banned.

Leftist Mayor Francesco Rutelli, citing events such as a gay fashion show to be held near a church, said the capital was withdrawing official backing of the event, although it would still “be the guarantor of the gays’ freedom to demonstrate.”

Gay rights leaders attacked the mayor’s decision. “It’s a matter of deciding if Italy is a lay country, free and democratic, or it’s a Vatican serfdom,” said Franco Grillini, who heads a commission in the national government’s Equal Opportunity Ministry.