Sunday, February 16, 2014

Italian Trans Activist Arrested at Sochi Displaying Rainbows


My friend Valerio Barbini is a young gay Italian leader and he just alerted me to this breaking news from Russia. A famous transgender Italian activist and politician named Vladimir Luxuria has been taken into custody at Sochi for protesting Putin's homo-hatred and waving a rainbow flag. Here's a Google translation of the Giornalettismo story that gives some of the facts:

Vladimir Luxuria arrested in Sochi with a gay flag. On Twitter she writes: "I'm in Sochi ! Regards with the colors of the rainbow, in the face of Putin!" 

Luxuria, in the past the first transgender person to be elected to the parliament of a European state, so this morning announcing his arrival at the Games in Sochi on Twitter, even posting a picture of her at entrance to the Olympic park with a rainbow fan and umbrella. 

"The goal, of course, was to protest against the law homophobic Putin, one that prohibits gay propaganda pretext in the presence of minors," he explained over the phone to ANSA, while buying tickets to Sochi airport go see a hockey game tomorrow night. 


Immediately after the Agi news said: Luxuria was arrested with a gay flag. "I just got a call from Vladimir Luxuria and she said: 'I was arrested by police while attending the Olympics in Sochi with a banner with the inscription in Russian 'Gay and ok'". This news was announced by Imma Battaglia, Honorary President of the Gay Project. 

"The attitude of the police, Battaglia reports, 'was brutal and aggressive'. No one speaks English. Now Luxuria is alone in a room with neon lights on the face, allegedly in police custody. We call for an immediate intervention of Minister Bonino."

Let's hope Luxuria is not mistreated while in Russian custody and is soon released from jail, and out on the streets continuing her fabulous activism.

1 comment:

Maulon said...

No, please, the writing in russian was obviously “gay is okay”, and not “gay and okay” as you have translated from the original report in italian. The error is due to the fact that in italian the firs sentence is “GAY È OK”, and the second is “GAY E OKAY”, with no stress on the E. You probably didn’t notice the stressed vowel.

Apart from this... presently the news is breaking news in all italian media, for Vladimir is an extremely famous person, both for havinf served in parlament and for its work in the showbiz.