Gay conversion therapy in Italy

Rosario Lonegro was solely 20 years previous when he entered a Catholic seminary in Sicily as an aspiring priest getting ready to be ordained. However whereas he was there he fell in love with one other man and his superiors demanded that he endure conversion remedy meant to erase his sexual preferences if he wished to proceed on the trail to the priesthood.

“It was the darkest interval of my life,” he instructed the BBC, recalling his seminary expertise in 2017.

Haunted by guilt and fears of committing a sin within the eyes of the Catholic Church, Rosario mentioned he “felt trapped with no selection however to suppress my true self”.

“The psychological stress to be somebody I used to be not was insurmountable. I couldn’t change regardless of how arduous I attempted.”

For greater than a 12 months, he was compelled to participate in non secular gatherings outdoors the seminary, some over a number of days, the place he was subjected to a collection of distressing actions meant to strip him of his sexual proclivities.

These included being locked in a darkish closet, being coerced to strip bare in entrance of fellow members, and even being required to enact his personal funeral.

Throughout these rituals, he was tasked with committing to paper his perceived flaws, reminiscent of “homosexuality”, “abomination”, “falsehood” – and much more express phrases, which he was then obliged to bury beneath a symbolic headstone.

The World Well being Group (WHO) eliminated homosexuality from its checklist of psychological issues in 1990. Subsequent scientific analysis has largely concluded that makes an attempt to alter sexual orientation aren’t solely ineffective but in addition dangerous.

In France, Germany and predominantly Catholic Spain, conversion therapies have been formally banned, and efforts are underneath approach each in England and Wales to outlaw such practices.

Right now in Italy, it is almost not possible to find out the exact extent of those practices, reported largely by males, however some ladies too, and there’s no normal authorized definition of them.

In current months, nevertheless, the BBC has carried out interviews with a number of younger homosexual males throughout the nation who’ve shared their experiences of being subjected to pseudoscientific group conferences or particular person remedy classes aimed toward turning them into heterosexuals.

One 33-year-old man who attended this sort of assembly for over two years expressed his preliminary motivation, saying: “I wished to reconcile with myself. I didn’t need to be gay. I believed I wanted to be cured.”

“I noticed that as my sole path to acceptance,” mentioned one other. He was not making an attempt to grow to be a priest, however was merely looking for acceptance in his day by day life.

Homosexual conversion remedy isn’t restricted to 1 particular area of Italy – group conferences and particular person remedy classes run throughout the nation, some even run by licensed psychotherapists. In some circumstances, these gatherings and remedy classes are unofficial and covert, typically promoted by way of discreet conversations and secret referrals.

Different programs are publicly marketed, with identified figures inside Italy’s conservative circles actively looking for followers on-line and on social media platforms to advertise their means to alter sexual orientations.

In Sicily, Rosario Lonegro was primarily subjected to conferences organised by the Spanish group Verdad y Libertad (Fact and Freedom), underneath the management of Miguel Ángel Sánchez Cordón. This group has since disbanded, having incurred the disapproval of the Catholic Church.

Nonetheless, the Italian priest who initially pushed Lonegro into these practices was given a senior place throughout the Church, whereas others continued to attract inspiration from Sánchez Cordón’s strategies in Italy.

Most of the folks the BBC spoke to had been referred to Luca di Tolve, a “ethical/non secular coach” who gained recognition by way of his ebook titled “I used to be homosexual as soon as. In Medjugorie I discovered myself”.

On his web site, Di Tolve and his spouse boast that they’re a “contented couple” looking for to “help anybody whose sexual id is in turmoil, serving to them to genuinely train their freedom in figuring out who they want to be as an individual”. When contacted by the BBC, Di Tolve didn’t reply.

One other lively particular person selling methods to sort out perceived sexual orientation is Giorgio Ponte, a widely known author in Italy’s ultra-conservative circles. He says he desires to assist folks overcome their homosexuality and be liberated, by telling his personal story as a person with gay drives who’s on his “doubtlessly life-long” path to freedom.

“In my expertise, gay attraction stems from an harm to 1’s id that conceals wants unrelated to the sexual-erotic facet however moderately tied to a distorted notion of oneself, reflecting throughout all features of life,” he instructed the BBC.

“I imagine {that a} gay individual ought to have the liberty to strive [to become heterosexual], if they need, figuring out, nevertheless, that it might not be doable for everybody,” he added.

In recent times, dozens of younger women and men have sought steering from the likes of Di Tolve, Ponte and Sánchez Cordón. Amongst them is 36-year-old Massimiliano Felicetti, a homosexual man who grappled with makes an attempt to alter his sexual orientation for greater than 15 years.

“I began to be uncomfortable with myself from a really early age, I felt I might by no means be accepted by my household, society, Church circles. I believed I used to be fallacious, I simply wished to be cherished, and these folks supplied me hope,” he mentioned.

Felicetti mentioned he had tried completely different options, consulting psychologists and clergy members who supplied to assist him grow to be heterosexual. Nonetheless, about two years in the past, he determined to cease. A friar who knew of his wrestle inspired him to start out courting a girl, however it didn’t really feel pure.

“Once I kissed her for the primary time, it felt unnatural. It was time to cease pretending,” Felicetti mentioned.

Just a few months in the past he got here out as homosexual to his household. “It took years, however for the primary time I’m blissful to be who I’m.”

Regardless of makes an attempt from earlier governments to advertise a invoice to oppose conversion therapies, no progress has been made in Italy. Italy’s right-wing authorities led by Giorgia Meloni has up to now adopted a hostile stance towards LGBT rights, with the prime minister herself vowing to sort out the so-called “LGBT foyer” and “gender ideology”.

Such lack of progress comes as no shock to Michele Di Bari, a researcher in comparative public legislation on the College of Padova, who says that Italy is structurally a lot slower to implement change in contrast with different international locations in Western Europe.

“It is a very elusive phenomenon, provided that it’s a observe prohibited by Italy’s order of psychologists itself. But, within the Italian authorized system, it isn’t deemed unlawful. Individuals finishing up such practices can’t be punished.”

Regardless of the complexity of the difficulty, consultants imagine that partly attributable to Italy’s robust Catholic affect, the nation has been extra hesitant to ban these controversial practices.

“This can be one of many parts that, together with a strongly patriarchal and male chauvinist tradition, makes the broader understanding of homosexuality and LGBT rights tougher,” mentioned Valentina Gentile, a sociologist at Rome’s LUISS College.

“Nonetheless, additionally it is truthful to say that not all Catholicism is hostile to the inclusion of range and the Church itself is in a interval of robust transformation on this regard,” she added.

Pope Francis has mentioned that the Catholic Church is open to everybody, together with the homosexual neighborhood, and that it has an obligation to accompany them on a private path of spirituality, however throughout the framework of its guidelines.

Nonetheless, the Pope himself was reported to have used a extremely derogatory time period in direction of the LGBT neighborhood when he instructed a closed-door assembly with Italian bishops that homosexual folks shouldn’t be allowed to grow to be monks. The Vatican issued an official apology.

Rosario Lonegro has left Sicily behind and likewise lives in Milan. Following a nervous breakdown in 2018, he left each the seminary and the conversion remedy group.

Whereas he nonetheless believes in God, he now not desires to grow to be a priest. He shares an house together with his boyfriend, he research philosophy and undertakes occasional freelance work to pay for college. Nonetheless, the psychological wounds inflicted by such actions nonetheless run deep.

“Throughout these conferences, one mantra haunted me and was repeated time and again: ‘God didn’t make me that approach. God didn’t make me gay. It’s solely a lie I inform myself,’ I believed I used to be evil,” he mentioned.

“I’ll always remember that.”

When you have been affected by any of the problems raised on this story you’ll be able to go to BBC Motion Line.