ITALY: Activists Counter Neo-Nazis With Public Reading Of LGBT Children's Books

Yesterday I reported that Italy's neo-Nazi New Front Party planned to hold a burning of LGBT children's books in a central plaza in Milan. Local activists had demanded that city authorities stop the event and that may have happened. Not stopped, however, was a large counter-protest by LGBT activists and allies, who this afternoon staged a public reading of numerous LGBT children's titles.  Bravo Milano! Meanwhile the neo-Nazis are mocking the counter-protest on their Facebook page.

ITALY: Neo-Nazi Party To Stage Public Burning Of LGBT Children's Books

Two days after a civil unions bill advanced in the Italian Senate, tomorrow Italy's neo-Nazi New Front Party will stage a public burning of LGBT children's books in Milan. Local progressives are demanding that city authorities step in to stop the event.

Members of the Democratic Party are outraged: "Burning books with a theme of homosexuality was a typical behavior of the Nazi regime. This horrendous return to the most terrible past must be censured and rejected with the greatest commitment. Milan is a noted city of the resistance and in the seventieth anniversary year of its liberation it cannot suffer such an outrage."

Another group is calling for a counter-protest: "We invite the citizens of Milan to come to Piazza Oberdan [tomorrow] with one of the books contained in the list in question or with books like those of Sappho, Tondelli or Oscar Wilde. Read them together with us." (Tipped by JMG reader Andrea)

RELATED: The New Front Party was formed in 1997 by members of a Nazi punk band. In the 2013 general election New Front candidates got nearly 200,000 votes but won zero seats in the national legislature. Among its stated objectives are the "humane repatriation" of immigrants, a ban on abortion, the abolition of capitalism, and "the recovery of Christian religiosity and faith in the Catholic Church."