Openly gay Puglia Governor Nichi
Vendola said Tuesday he wants to marry his partner of ten years,
Ed Testa.
"Everything will change (after regional elections) in
May," said Vendola, the founder and leader of the small leftwing
Left Ecology Freedom (SEL) party.
"I'd like to marry Ed, but only if he asks me," the
governor told Chi tabloid magazine in an interview that hits the
stands Wednesday.
"I will also think about whether or not to become a
father," said the governor and LGBT activist.
"I have always loved the world of childhood and would like
to write a book of nursery rhymes".
Asked what he thought of Dolce & Gabbana and their defense
of the traditional heterosexual family, Vendola answered "I
believe that from the height of their social rank, they truly do
not understand what it means to live in a country in which
homophobia kills and the civil rights deficit weighs on many
lives".
A firestorm erupted at the weekend when Elton John and
other celebrities called for a boycott of the fashion house
after Domenico Dolce made what appeared to be disparaging
comments about in vitro fertilization and surrogate motherhood,
techniques often used by gays who want children.
Vendola - who last November called for a new leftwing
alliance called Human Factor to challenge what he said is the
government's "drift to the right" - went on to say that he has
always held the battle for civil rights to be a central tenet
for him as a politician.
"I believe in equality...and I would like for this
principle to be at the center of everything," he said.
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