The Pathologisation of Homosexuality in Fascist Italy by Gabriella Romano

Author:Gabriella Romano
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9783030009946
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

The moralising campaign, which dated back to the beginning of the regime, now extended to all forms of entertainment, even music: jazz was a major target. Based on improvisation, it increasingly was associated with rebel attitudes and potentially immoral, promiscuous night-clubs, something that found a strong echo in the local newspapers.14 Besides, it was “foreign” and, as such, it raised suspicions just like other “imported” trends, such as Feminism, considered as quintessentially American. The country had to be self-sufficient and focus on its traditions and history. Even foreign names had to be translated and “Italianised”: Albrecht Dürer became a desolately provincial “Alberto Durero”, to quote an example taken from a magazine of November 1928.15

However, from the killing of the socialist MP Giacomo Matteotti in 1924, the repression had touched many other aspects of public and private life, and in 1926 had reached its peak: Law n. 2307, approved on 31 December 1925, aimed at “the integral fascistisation of the press”.16 The control of newspapers and magazines was a top priority and the Prefettura was given full powers to intervene when a publication was thought to be irreverent or critical of the regime. This clearly was reflected in the situation in Turin. Main newspapers and magazines in circulation in 1928 in Piedmont were La Stampa, La Gazzetta del Popolo, Il Momento, Il Piemonte, Il Primato and Il Giornale dei Combattenti: the first four were described by the Prefettura as “favourable to the current political policies”, while the latter two were said to be “even more favourable”.17 Local voices of dissent such as Ordine Nuovo, Altoparlante, La Plebaglia, Umanità Nuova had already disappeared, Il Baretti, founded by the famous Turin anti-fascist intellectual Piero Gobetti, published its last issue in Autumn 1928, La Protesta and La Riscossa would cease publication in 1929.18

In addition, several cultural associations, perceived as uncontrollable and potentially hostile to Fascism, were forced to disband: from cradle to grave, the state now offered a number of options where sport and socialisation could take place under its vigilant eye. This can be observed at a local level too. By 1928 many cultural associations in the Piedmont region had been dismantled, among them the Italian Federation of Workers of the Publishing Sector (Federazione Italiana dei Lavoratori del Libro) and the Literary Club (Circolo Letterario) in Torre Pellice, the small town where the majority of Italian Protestants lived. The latter is an unequivocal indication of the level of censorship and persecution of religious minorities that the regime had started implementing.19

As Ebner’s research shows,20 everywhere throughout Italy many osterie and trattorie, a traditional meeting place for working class people, had been forced to close, often the result of spying activities: the ones that continued to operate were full of informants ready to over-hear anti-regime comments, more easily pronounced when under the influence of alcohol. Sometimes the owners and staff had been recruited as informants, on the promise that they could continue their activity without too many bureaucratic entanglements. Hotels, identified as a primary meeting location for anti-fascists, had been regularly searched, fined or shut down.

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