At Rome Pride, the Word of the Day is Frociaggine

June 16, 2024
HANK ORSO

At Rome Pride, the Word of the Day is Frociaggine

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Saturday the Roman world turned out in droves to celebrate Pride the Italian way, marching joyfully through the ancient streets to declare that they are here, and most definitely "Frociaggine!" You've heard the word by now, introduced into our lexicon by none other than Pope Francie after he used the derogatory term...let's just call it "the queer F-word"...not once but twice during private meetings with cardinals, priests, and other men who like to dress up in fancy man-dresses and cast aspersions on others while ignoring their history of sex crimes.

So the people of Rome turned the slur on its head and made it their calling card, kind of like how we've incorporated the word "queer" and made it our own. Or how singer Joe Jackson sang in his 80's song "Real Men" when he said "So don't call me a faggot not unless you are a friend." It's what we do; we take it on, make it our own, and drain the poison out of it, emasculate its vitriol and make fun of it.

Men showed up in papal hats and robes, not as a form of honor but of street theater and sardonic parody. He's worthy of being the brunt of the joke, and participants took that idea and ran with it! Director Emiliano Sisolfi, as reported in the NYTimes, said "If I laugh about the word, they have no more words to offend us.” And fellow marcher Giacomo Canarezza said “If I take ownership of the word, I can use it as a marker of my identity.”

Italians Respond to Pope’s Slur by Taking Francis to Pride - At Saturday’s celebration in Rome, Pope Francis’ image was on cardboard cutouts adorned with flower necklaces. People came dressed as the pope, wore papal hats and said that there was … @nytimes:https://t.co/Y6Mxl8dCnA
— Olav Mitchell Underdal (@omunderdal) June 16, 2024

"The slur 'is the slogan of the 2024 Pride,' said Martina Lorina, 28, an actress who was holding up a banner bearing the word" (NYTimes).

The current pope may have made outward pronouncements of tenuous support for the LGBTQ+ community, suggesting support for trans persons to act as godparents, blessing same-sex unions, and saying "who am I to judge them?" when it comes to gay priests. But it was in a meeting concerning gay men entering the seminary and becoming ordained when he made the comments with the now-famous slur. Spoiler alert, he wasn't particularly down with queers becoming clergy.

The community faces an uphill battle when it comes to equality in the face of Italy's Prime Minister, Giogia Meloni, who leads a far-right-wing government that has illegalized gay adoption and same-sex couple surrogacy parentage; has blocked local mayors from certifying birth certificates of foreign-born children to Italian same-sex parents through surrogacy; and is one of the few European countries along with the Czech republic which still has not legalized marriage equality.

PRIDE IN ROME ITALY.....
️‍️‍⚧️........ pic.twitter.com/e43P6bVAbu
— COCA ‍♀️ (@Coca44791276) June 13, 2023

But that doesn't seem to keep the community from partying in the street! Despite the Vatican's tepid apology which was quickly followed up by "His Holiness's" second use of the term, men and women, young and old turned out for a party that for many served to throw the insult back in his face. With pride!

Oh, and if you happen to have come across a report that Meloni's government has created a "Family Pride Month" to counter LGBTQ+ Pride events, it's actually not true.