Calling someone gay 'not an insult'

(ANSA) - Rome, November 29 - Calling a straight person gay is not an insult anymore, Italy's top court ruled Tuesday. The Cassation Court said that in today's historical context, the term "homosexual" has not kept "an intrinsically offensive meaning as, perhaps, might have been considered in the not-so-distant past". The court said the term has come into current use and relates to an individual's sexual preferences, taking on a "neutral character" which means it cannot harm anyone's reputation, even when it is directed at a heterosexual person. Sentences from the Cassation Court, Italy's highest court of appeal, set legal precedent.