This interview is part of a series of seven interviews on Fuori! (including this one, as well as those with Angelo Pezzana, founder of Fuori!, Maurizio Cagliuso, Archivist and Librarian of the Fondazione Angelo Pezzana-Fuori!, and the activists of Fuori!, Enzo Cucco, Anna Cuculo, Vera Fraboni and Riccardo Rosso). These interviews were collected during summer 2024 thanks to a Scholarship Catalyst Program grant from Texas Tech University (Office of the President, Office of the Provost, Office of the Vice President for Research) and are to be considered as dedicated to Angelo Pezzana.
Maurizio Gelatti, a Milan native, Turinese by adoption, is a journalist, cultural manager and a communications expert. He serves on the board of directors of an Italian publishing group and writes a weekly column on rights for La Stampa–Torino Sette. Additionally, he collaborates with Italian LGBTQI+ newspapers and associations. He is Vice President of the Fondazione Angelo Pezzana-Fuori! as well as founding member and President of the Gelatti-Viola Archive, where he coordinates the creation of a museum space dedicated to cats. He was a faculty member at the Master’s in Publishing program at the University of Urbino and currently teaches in the Master’s in Scientific Communication program at the University of Turin. He is communication consultant to the Director of the Lovers Film Festival Vladimir Luxuria and to the Director of the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin.
Thank you, Maurizio, for this interview. Would you like to talk about your militancy and your work within the Fondazione Angelo Pezzana-Fuori!, and the impact that the Foundation had on you?
First of all, I would like to point out that I am the current Vice President of the Fondazione Angelo Pezzana-Fuori! and before that, I was co-President of the Fondazione Sandro Penna-Fuori!. Actually, I started as an activist and militant and for a long time I was the secretary of the Coordinamento Torino Pride, that brings together all the main associations, foundations, and various groups belonging to the LGBT community in the Piedmont area. I was also part of the Board of Directors of Arcigay Torino. I directed a series on LGBT publishing for a publisher and I also serves on its Board of Directors.
A few years ago, I connected with Angelo Pezzana and the Foundation that he created and presides over. We started a connection of mutual trust, which then led me to become the Vice President of this institution. As he has also explained, the Foundation has restructured to become a more solid entity and interlocutor with a whole series of realities: it has become officially recognized as a third-sector organization with an economic endowment that allows it to carry out a range of important activities.
As of today, my militant activity is primarily focused on my role as Vice President of the Fondazione Angelo Pezzana-Fuori!, with one exception: I am also part of the Turin Europride 2027 promoting committee. In fact, Italy and the city of Turin are candidates to host the Europride in 2027, the largest annual event in Europe for the defense of LGBT rights. I am part of this committee together with others, and soon, on November 2, 2024, during the AGM (Annual General Meeting) in Porto, we will find out if our efforts have been successful and have brought us the desired goal, meaning to have Turin host this event in 2027.
Having said this, in terms of how all this has impacted my life, it is not so much a change as a deep intertwining of my professional and normal social activities with my life as an activist. For example, as I have said before, in my work in communication and publishing, I have “brought the rainbow”: for instance, I created an editorial series and co-curated an exhibition for the 50th anniversary of Fuori!. Obviously, these projects are closely connected to both my professional activities as a cultural manager and my activism for LGBT rights.
So, is it an all-around activism?
Yes, absolutely. I would say that it is an all-around activism, obviously closely linked, as it should be, to my inclinations and professionalism, because activism, like any volunteer activity or political struggle, is an important space in a person’s life. Hence, when combined with specific skills, it is obvious that it optimizes time and becomes more useful for the causes we are fighting for.
I will give you a very specific example. If I were to cook or pursue activities outside my expertise, obviously the results would be less effective. So, I focus mainly on what aligns with my work to be immediately effective.
Another example is the Salone del Libro di Torino. For seven years, it has hosted a space dedicated to LGBT rights and more. This idea was conceived by Alessandro Battaglia, then the Coordinator of Turin Pride, and me. Together with Antonella Parigi, who at the time was councilor for culture of the Piedmont Region, we created this space, that still exists today, and despite changes since then in the political governance of the Piedmont Region – twice with the municipality – and the Salone del Libro di Torino itself, this space remains. I am very proud to have contributed to its creation. To achieve this, I drew on contacts and specific skills in the sector.
I have been attending the Salone del Libro di Torino since its inception, first as a passionate young man and later for work. This is my world, so it was probably easier for me than for others to make this happen.
The Fondazione Angelo Pezzana-Fuori!, when it was still the Fondazione Sandro Penna-Fuori!, received a donation of several models created by Alessandro Michele for a Gucci collection. Would you like talk about how this donation came about?
The story of how Fuori! became part of this collection is quite interesting and worth telling because, contextually, it connects to a related story.
Fuori! made its way to Gucci, Alessandro Michele, and the Milanese fashion catwalks thanks to a volume. Books are a recurring theme for the Fondazione Angelo Pezzana-Fuori. Let’s not forget that Angelo Pezzana himself, one of Italy’s most important booksellers, co-founded the Salone del Libro di Torino with Guido Accornero.
As I have mentioned earlier, in 2021, on the Fiftieth anniversary of Fuori! we organized a large exhibition at the Polo del Novecento and the Museo Diffuso della Resistenza in Turin. This event received significant media attention, even internationally, with coverage in British and Spanish newspapers. In conjunction with this exhibition, two very important volumes were published. Hopefulmonster, Beatrice Merz’s publishing house, released a book-catalog that brough together precious documents from the exhibition, thus serving as a comprehensive history of Fuori! that coincides with the early years of the Italian homosexual movement. Nero Edizioni published another valuable volume with the first 12 issues of the magazine Fuori! and the first issue of Fuori! Donna in full, in a book with an introduction-interview with Angelo Pezzana by Claudio Antonelli. It was through this volume and its curators – the reference is to Francesco Urbano Ragazzi, a collective name representing two individuals – that the connection with Alessandro Michele and Gucci was established, bringing our brand and world onto the catwalk. Obviously, this was done with prior authorization of the Foundation and Angelo Pezzana: it also led to a donation, not only of the garments but also a financial one, to support the Foundation’s activities.
So, I would say that this is a virtuous and very interesting story on both sides and it highlights how militancy, politics and the fight for LGBT rights can embrace any sphere, even those as apparently impenetrable as the world of high fashion.
Alessandro Michele probably knew about Fuori! as a movement and a magazine.
Yes, absolutely. It is obvious that plants need fertile ground to sprout. When it comes to initiatives related to rights, culture and intelligence are essential components of this fertile ground, and Michele certainly has both. This allowed the birth of an idea that we are extremely proud of. We are very happy to display these garments in our future exhibition space, that we are currently working on.
How has this donation from Gucci changed the perception of the Foundation?
This change helped solidify the belief of the Fondazione Angelo Pezzana-Fuori! that a 360-degree approach to culture can be a powerful tool for building rights because we must not forget the history of Fuori! and the Foundation.
Fuori! began as a revolutionary and reformist movement, as Angelo Pezzana himself has stated. It eventually ceased to exist as such and evolved into a Foundation, first as Sandro Penna-Fuori! and then as Angelo Pezzana-Fuori!. Let’s say that, as a movement, Fuori! accomplished its goals and then shifted its focus and activity. Today, the Foundation is involved in research and documentation, as well as in fighting for rights and affirming such rights through cultural activities. For instance, we promote a literary prize, the only one in Italy dedicated to LGBT texts. We have produced documentaries on the history of the movement. Our headquarters are filled with works, drawings, and pieces of important artists who have supported us, such as Ugo Nespolo and Silombria, one of the militants and founders of Fuori!. Fashion fits perfectly into this context, as both fashion and songwriting are forms of art, and the garments you have seen are not just beautiful; they are cultural and artistic tools for communication.
It is said that the culture must change, however before pro-LGBT laws come through, the path to change is very long. Then, at a certain point, the culture also changes due to the laws. Then, it is not about beliefs; simply, if you give people fewer rights, then they should also pay fewer taxes.
Your last sentence was a conviction of a person that I was very fond of, Rita De Santis, who was a historic president of Agedo: before she passed away last year, she was also its honorary president. She was an all-around activist, a person with an extraordinary culture, she was a poet, a university professor and said the same thing: “If rights are denied to LGBT people, it is obvious that they can enjoy a smaller percentage of the services provided by the State compared to heterosexuals. Therefore, according to this principle, it would be fair for them to pay lower taxes because they cannot take advantage of all the possibilities the State offers to other people.”
Having said this, the future of activism must consider that Italy is one of the most backward countries in this regard. Rankings produced by ILGA Europe, based on official parameters, place Italy among the last positions in Europe. Italian legislation is lacking from almost every point of view. There is no equality in marriage, children of rainbow couples have no rights, and there is no specific law on homophobia. These are all, or at least some, of the things that exist in almost every other European country.
What seems to be the future of the community? What do you think is the future of LGBT activism in Italy?
Currently, the future of the community is dramatic in Italy, if nothing changes. It is shown and demonstrated by Italy’s pronouncement in Europe, just about only with Hungary, towards current events
Regarding to the specific question about the future of activism, my point of view is that we must be as proactive as possible and have the intelligence to understand the buttons that need to be pushed and the struggles that need to be undertaken to be effective. I believe that unfortunately the time for purely ideological struggle, understandable from a cultural and social point of view, is over. However, if it does not go hand in hand with actions that can potentially bring results, the struggle becomes sterile, and the future of the community remains bleak. After the Cirinnà law on civil unions in Italy, no further progress has been made. Moreover, this law was born incomplete as was supposed to be different. This is the last major legislative act in Italy, and it dates back many years.
If we are not operational with a government like the one we have now, results will not be produced easily. This perspective gave birth to the proposal and the significant effort to bring Europride to Italy. The great advantage of this type of demonstration is that it draws international and political media attention to the situation in the host countries.
It is no coincidence that the recent Europrides took place in places where rights are lacking – the last one in Malta and the upcoming one in Greece in July 2024 where I will be in attendance. From my point of view, this could be one of those actions that combine a social battle with a truly effective battle, because this type of international attention could potentially lead to significant change, obviously not as an on-off switch but as a step on the path to effective change.
What I always advise activists to do is to strive for effectiveness and to direct their protests and activities through associations in the direction of achieving tangible results.
In the United States, I have observed that activism of all kinds often involves lawyers, donations to associations, and direct first-person intervention.
I believe that even in the United States there are still realities similar to those in Italy and Europe. In Italy, we are also moving in this direction: for example, we now had for years Rete Lenford, an association of lawyers dedicated to LGBT causes, has been active for years, and I can provide a concrete example that affected me and the Turin community.
In recent years, Doctor De Mari has been in the news for her strongly homophobic statements, and the news is full of anecdotes about this doctor, who continues to call herself such, but has also been banned from the medical profession. The Coordinamento Torino Pride – and not only because Circolo Mario Mieli of Rome became involved – was plaintiff in the lawsuit against the doctor and won, with the sponsorship of a lawyer in the Rete Lenford.
This is again a virtuous example to tell you about effectiveness, because this was an action that created a legal precedent in Italy, as it was unprecedented for a significant associative body like Coordinamento Torino Pride to join as a civil party and sue the doctor, thanks also to the support of Rete Lenford, therefore facing various levels of judgment and always winning.
This was a great achievement that led to a result and therefore another example. It highlights that when different associative and cultural organizations come together, making use of their skills to bring about a common result as in De Mari’s case, the result is obtained more easily even if all the subjects involved continue to work according to their histories and inclinations.
Photo Credits © Courtesy of Maurizio Gelatti
L’articolo An interview with Maurizio Gelatti proviene da ytali..
4uMagazine
