italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
John
Can I suggest you also have a look at Gianfranco Goretti and Tommaso
Giartosio's excellent La citta' e l'isola: omosessuali al confino
nell'Italia fascista?
They make the point that even before fascism homosexual acts could be
prosecuted under existing catch-all legislation - which is effectively
what fascism did. Apart from De Grazia I dont think anyone says that
homosexuality itself was made a crime
Best
Derek
On Sun, February 6, 2011 12:25 am, John Champagne wrote:
> italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
>
> Dear Derek:
>
> Sorry for the multiple mailings; it is on page 45 that you quote
> Petrosino that “after 1938 the criminal nature of homosexuality was
> judged in a political frame as 'damaging to the prestige of the race.'”
>
> Best,
> John
>
> On 02/05/2011 05:44 PM, Derek Duncan wrote:
>> italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
>>
>> Dear John
>>
>> can you point to where i mention 1938? on page 2 of my book Im simply
>> reiterating the information in Dall'Orto's piece about legislation
>> designed to protect the health of the race introduced in 1936
>>
>> Best wishes
>>
>> Derek Duncan
>>
>>
>> On Sat, February 5, 2011 3:37 pm, John Champagne wrote:
>>
>>> italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
>>>
>>> Cari Amici:
>>>
>>> I am trying to answer what one would think was a fairly
>>> straight-forward
>>> question: what was the legal status of homosexuality during the Fascist
>>> years? The problem is that my sources disagree.
>>>
>>> According to Giovanni Dall'Orto:
>>>
>>> In 1936, homosexuals were declared "enemies of the health of the race,"
>>> the punishment for the crime being political confinement.
>>>
>>> "La ''Tolleranza Repressiva' dell'omosessualità. Quando un
>>> atteggiamento
>>> legale diviene tradizione,"
>>> <_http://www.giovannidallorto.com/saggistoria/tollera/tolle2d.html_>.
>>>
>>> According to Dall'Orto, this practice lasted only three years, as this
>>> method of control proved too complicated and costly; in 1940, all the
>>> confined returned home, but remained under the watch of the parish
>>> priest, police commissioner, family, and neighbors.
>>>
>>> Derek Duncan instead argues that homosexuality, re-criminalized in
>>> 1936,
>>> was recategorized as a political crime in 1938. See Duncan, /Reading
>>> and
>>> Writing Italian Homosexuality, A Case of Possible Difference, / 2.
>>>
>>> Sandro Bellassai agrees with Dall'Orto's dating. See Bellassai, /La
>>> Mascolinit//à// Contemporanea/ (Roma: Carocci, 2004), 91. Bellassai
>>> adds
>>> that the confined numbered a little less than ninety individuals, and
>>> that a large number of them came from the single province of Catania,
>>> where the zealotry of some police functionaries created a significant
>>> amount of scandal for the regime. It was for this reason that the
>>> process was ultimately abandoned.
>>>
>>> According to Dall'Orto, The 1931 /Codice Rocco/ *threatened* to
>>> introduce anti-homosexual legislation in Italy, but this provision was
>>> *abandoned* in an effort to avoid drawing attention to the phenomenon
>>> of
>>> homosexuality. Giovanni Dall'Orto, "Omosessualità e razzismo
>>> fascista,"
>>> <_http://www.giovannidallorto.com/saggistoria/fascismo/razzismo/razzismo.html_>.
>>> See also Dall'Orto, "Le ragioni di una persecuzione," in Martin
>>> Sherman,
>>> Editor, /Bent: Nazismo, fascismo, e omosessualità/ (Torino: Gruppo
>>> Abele, 1984), 101-19; and anonymous, "La rispettabilità nel codice
>>> Rocco," /Museo virtuale delle intolleranza e degli stermini/
>>> <_http://www.zadigweb.it/amis/schede.asp?id=8&idsch=189
>>> <http://www.zadigweb.it/amis/schede.asp?id=8&idsch=189>_>.
>>>
>>> Without providing a citation for her dates, Vittoria de Grazia instead
>>> states that "in the penal code of 1931, homosexual acts among men were
>>> outlawed." De Grazia, /How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy 1922-1945/
>>> (Berkeley: U of California P, 1992) 43. On the Fascist categorization
>>> of
>>> homosexuality as a political crime, see also Giovanni Dall'Orto, "Il
>>> paradosso del razzismo fascista verso l'omosessualità," in A. Burgio
>>> (ed). /Nel nome della razza:il razzismo nella storia d'Italia
>>> 1870-1925/
>>> (Bologna: Il Mulino: 1999), 515-28.
>>>
>>> As you can see, Dall'Orto and Bellassai, Duncan, and de Grazia all make
>>> different claims concerning when homosexuality was criminalized and if
>>> and when it was recategorized as a political crime.
>>>
>>> Any help sorting this out would be appreciated. I have also consulted
>>> Lorenzo Benadusi's /Il nemico/, but it does not clarify this specific
>>> question.
>>>
>>> Cordiali saluti,
>>>
>>> John Champagne
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>
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