Homophobia knocks at the door in Bitonto

The hate-filled story of a young man in his thirties from Bitonto hits hard. 

Michele studies and lives with his family, and a few days ago he found a note on the door of his house saying “Heal yourself, fag***”. The protagonist of this sad story lives in a residential unit of about twenty people. 

The note, he explained in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, was clearly addressed to him. He did not dare, but he would have liked to go downstairs and give the possible sender a good lesson: a person who has been causing the residential building a number of problems for some time. In the past, there had been disagreements with this person, who had been reprimanded by someone in the block of flats for poor behaviour regarding littering, this person was convinced that it was the young man’s fault, taking the liberty of insulting him because of his sexual orientation. 

Michele thus removed the note, which he decided, however, to keep in anticipation of a complaint. Michele only came out for his sister’s sake, while his parents did not take it well. The situation is difficult at home and he is demoralized. He is very scared and after this sad affair he does not feel safe even in the place where he lives. Frightened, Michele would like to leave his hometown, contemplating the possibility of leaving Italy for a more international, welcoming and inclusive country. 

The mayor of Bitonto immediately took the young man’s side and organised a demonstration of support on 17 May to show his solidarity and publicly denounce the offensive, ignorant and uncivil behaviour of which he was a victim. A beautiful demonstration to show how important it is to guarantee equal rights and opportunities with the sole aim of building a truly open and inclusive society. 

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