An Italian pro-life group came under attack during an LGBT demonstration in Rome. Pro Vita & Famiglia (Pro Life & Family) condemned what they described as acts of “verbal violence” towards their staffers, and ended in the office being vandalized.
“The insults and verbal violence during last Saturday’s #Pride2023 in front of our offices and the declarations of the spokesman for the demonstration, Mario Colamarino, who called us ‘bastards,’ generated a climate of hatred towards us so much that the our office has been defaced and vandalized with the words ‘Transfeminist revenge,’ ‘free abortion,’ ‘hanging bundles’ and the throwing of eggs,” Jacopo Coghe, president of the organization, tweeted, adding, “We feel sorry for those who, during the demonstration, said that we will no longer reopen the headquarters, but instead we are open and operational as every start of the week and as always.”
He added, “We will not be intimidated and will continue our actions in defense of Life, the family, educational freedom and children.”
Gli insulti è la violenza verbale durante il #Pride2023 di sabato scorso davanti alla nostra sede e le dichiarazoni del portavoce della manifestazione, Mario Colamarino, che ci ha dato dei ‘bastardi’, hanno generato un clima di odio nei nostri confronti tanto che la nostra sede è… pic.twitter.com/utSYv8aJwO
— Jacopo Coghe (@jacopocoghe) June 12, 2023
In an interview with local news outlets, Colamarino bragged about the number of people involved in the Pride demonstration, and specifically criticized local politicians for aligning with the pro-life movement. “You know where you can put an apology,” Colamarino said, in reference to pro-life politicians, such as Francesco Rocca, who had demanded an apology from the LGBT group. “The right in this region is in the hands of pro-lifers. They order and politics execute. If anything, Rocca is the one who has to apologize.”
Colamarino further said, in a somewhat ominous message, “Today we take back the squares that we usually live in fear, being insulted, feeling observed and with fear. Today this city is ours.”
Though Colamarino’s LGBT group was able to “take the square” and live without fear, they did so by putting fear into others – and their rhetoric culminated in an act of vandalism against a group that has worked to help Italian women and their children.
