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 Church Bars Trans Politician From Relative's
Wedding
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: November 8, 2007 - 5:00 pm ET
(Rome) An Italian couple has been told the
bride's cousin cannot attend the wedding because she is transsexual, supports
gay rights and is a critic of the Catholic Church.
Vladimir Luxuria was to have been a bridesmaid at
the wedding, to take place this weekend at an ancient chapel in
Foggia, in southern Italy.
Italian media report that the chapel's priest told
the couple that it has a choice to make: either they disinvite Luxuria or they
do not marry.
The priest, identified as a Fr Francesco, said
Luxuria does not represent "family values".
Luxuria is a member of Italy's Communist Party
and a member of Prime Minister Prodi's ruling coalition.
She was elected to Parliament last year, becoming
the first transgendered politician elected to a national government in Europe.
Luxuria has been a popular fixture in Rome's LGBT
community for more than a decade. She is a cabaret performer and in 1994
organized the county's first gay pride march.
In Parliament she has been a vocal supporter of
same-sex marriage, earning her frequent criticism from the Church.
Earlier this year she went to Moscow to support
gays trying to organize a pride march and was one of several European
politicians briefly arrested.
The ban on her attending her cousin's wedding
prompted a sharp rebuke for the Church from her party which called the priest's
action "illegal and
racist".
"Once again, the Church shows its discriminatory and fundamentalist
face," the party said in a statement.
©365Gay.com 2007
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