A junior minister Ivan Scalfarotto in the Italian government has gone on hunger strike in a protest aimed at speeding up moves to introduce civil unions for gay couples.

The minister, who is gay himself and a long-standing rights campaigner said in his blog he was aiming to force discussion of the issue into the mainstream and rally the support of “all those people of good faith who have been thinking up until now that it was enough just to wait.”

“The time has come to do something more to support those working to ensure Italy finally catches up with Kentucky, or at least gets near,” he added in a reference to the recent US Supreme Court ruling which forces even the most conservative of states to allow gay marriage.

Italy stands alone amongst major western Europe states in having no provisions for the official recognition of homosexual couples. Draft legislation that would authorise civil unions for them is currently blocked in the Senate.

bbabo.Net