A gay island community created by Italy's Fascists

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22856586

by bifrost • 13 years ago

65 19 13 years ago

bbc.co.uk

dallagi3• 13 years ago

[OT] Another 'quite-similar' fact happened (in Italy) in 1967, when italian engineer Giorgio Rosa built an artificial island in Adriatic Sea, named it "Rose Island" and declared indipendence. The micro-nation adopted Esperanto as official language, issued a number of stamps and had its own currency. Unfortunately, Italian government ordered the militar police to destroy it, even thought it was placed in international water. It was one of the few wars that Italy actually won [/OT]

dallagi3• 13 years ago

(more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Rose_Island )

Luc• 13 years ago

The Italian Wikipedia has some images of the stamps they issued - before and after the dynamiting of the platform!

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isola_delle_Rose_%28micronazion...

danmaz742• 13 years ago

Didn't we win WWI? ;)

dallagi3• 13 years ago

Yeah... more or less :P (btw I'm Italian too)

e3pi• 13 years ago

At least you guys made the coolest mil-spec fun-loving totenkopf badges:

http://www.mymilitaria.it/Liste_02/images/x_mas_bregonzio_1....

EdiX• 13 years ago

AFAIK 11km isn't far enough from the coast to be international waters.

vacri• 13 years ago

Apart from WWII, which was a biggie, didn't Italy win everything else since the unification? WWI, obtaining several African possessions, occupation of Albania?

Ihmahr• 13 years ago

I know an arab community on a part of an island in the Caribbean. Also created by fascists.

zalew2• 13 years ago

which one? I know of those on trinidad&tobago, but they came by will.

daeken• 13 years ago

I have a feeling it's a subtle reference to Guantanamo.

mtts• 13 years ago

The irony here is of course that those strong and virile Romans the fascists sought to emulate were themselves quite often homosexual, or at least not averse to homosexual sex every now and then.

Off the top of my head I can think of Julius Caesar (derided, that much is true, by his enemies, for enjoying taking the passive role every now and then - but not for having sex with males per se) and Augustus, but I'm sure there were others.

maxbaroi• 13 years ago

Everyone who studies that sort of thing has told me that viewing ancient roman sexuality through a homosexual vs heterosexual lens is not quite right. You need to look at it more through who's the "passive" vs "active" participant.

That it was socially acceptable to be a man and penetrate someone else regardless of their sex, while it was frowned upon to be a grown man and be penetrated.

Similarly, to receive oral from someone else was fine, but it was frowned upon for a man to perform oral on a woman.

drivebyacct2• 13 years ago

Also my understanding was that it often was a matter of pederasty rather than "love" like when people talk about "marriage equality" nowadays or what not.

Detrus• 13 years ago

Spartans were pretty manly men and homosexual relations were expected of all. It's probably not so much the bed stories as the public behaviors that became associated with it when it was limited mainly to actual homosexuals.

A gay island community created by Italy's Fascists

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