Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

TOURISM

Dutch tourist in Sicily homophobic attack

A Dutch tourist in Catania, Sicily, has refused to leave his hotel room after being insulted and pushed by a group of youths, despite the city’s gay-friendly reputation.

Published: 17 June 2015 11:05 CEST

Dutch tourist in Sicily homophobic attack

The incident happened on Lungomare Ognina in Catania. Photo: andrea/Flickr

The 41-year-old tourist, who was on holiday with a group of friends, was walking by the Ognina seafront in Catania when he was approached by around 15 Italian and non-Italian youths aged between 15 and 25 on scooters, the local newspaper, La Sicilia, reported.

According to the tourist, the group mocked him and shouted “gay” at him. One of them then got off his scooter and shoved him, causing him to fall to the ground.

Terrified, the tourist left the city and moved to a hotel in the provinces, where he refused to leave his room for the duration of his holiday.

“The friends tried to convince him to go on a trip to Etna,” said one member of staff at the hotel. “But he was gripped by fear and was not able to leave the room, except for a short time to chat with us.”

The man was also visited by a doctor, who prescribed him anti-depressants.

La Sicilia said the man suffered “little physical damage, but unquantifiable moral damage”.

The incident comes in spite of Catania’s reputation as a gay-friendly holiday destination. In 2012, Sicilians elected their first openly-gay governor Rosario Crocetta.

As for the rest of Italy, there is evidence that the tide is turning with regards to gay marriage, with a poll in March showing that just over two thirds – 67 percent – were in favour of civil unions.

'Sweden should apologise to Tornedalian minority': Truth commission releases report

Stockholm’s policy of assimilation in the 19th and 20th centuries “harmed the minority and continues to hinder the defence of its language, culture and traditional livelihoods,” the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Tornedalians, Kvens and Lantalaiset said in an article published in Sweden’s main daily Dagens Nyheter.

“Amends must be made in order to move forward,” it said, adding that “acknowledging the historic wrongdoings” should be a first step.

The commission, which began work in June 2020, was to submit a final report to the government on Wednesday.

Tornedalen is a geographical area in northeastern Sweden and northwestern Finland. The Tornedalian, Kven and Lantalaiset minority groups are often grouped under the name Tornedalians, who number around 50,000 in Sweden.

The commission noted that from the late 1800s, Tornedalian children were prohibited from using their mother tongue, meänkieli, in school and forced to use Swedish, a ban that remained in place until the 1960s.

From the early 1900s, some 5,500 Tornedalian children were sent away to Lutheran Church boarding schools “in a nationalistic spirit”, where their language and traditional dress were prohibited.

Punishments, violence and fagging were frequent at the schools, and the Tornedalian children were stigmatised in the villages, the commission said.

“Their language and culture was made out to be something shameful … (and) their self-esteem and desire to pass on the language to the next generation was negatively affected.”

The minority has historically made a living from farming, hunting, fishing and reindeer herding, though their reindeer herding rights have been limited over the years due to complexities with the indigenous Sami people’s herding rights.

“The minority feels that they have been made invisible, that their rights over their traditional livelihoods have been taken away and they now have no power of influence,” the commission wrote.

It recommended that the meänkieli language be promoted in schools and public service broadcasting, and the state “should immediately begin the process of a public apology”.

The Scandinavian country also has a separate Truth Commission probing discriminatory policies toward the Sami people.

That report is due to be published in 2025.

Url copied to clipboard!