Appeals court upholds Taormina sentence

(ANSA) - Brescia, January 23 - An appeals court in the city of Brescia upheld a sentence for discrimination against a lawyer who said in a 2013 radio interview that gays are "unnatural". Carlo Taormina, an MP for Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI) party from 1996 to 2007 and a former interior ministry undersecretary, in October 2013 told La Zanzara (The Mosquito) radio show that homosexuals "are against nature" and that he would never hire a gay person. "I select my employees to make sure that never happens," he added.
    A court of first instance in August last year ordered him to pay 10,000 euros in damages to the Lawyers Association for LGBT Rights-Lenford Network, which is named after a murdered HIV rights activist, and which brought the discrimination suit against him.
    The appeals court upheld that sentence, and ordered the lawyer to also publish the sentence on Corriere della Sera newspaper at his own expense.