The Sad But Te Story of San Domo, Fascist Italy’s Island for ‘Immoral’ Gay Men | Hor, the Queer Social Network

Contents:

• A GAY ISLAND MUNY CREATED BY ITALY'S FASCISTS
• HOW MSOLI CREATED A GAY ISLAND COMMUNY
• US WHE SUPREMACISTS FOUND GUILTY OF GAY PRI RT PLOT
• THE SAD BUT TE STORY OF SAN DOMO, FASCIST ITALY’S ISLAND FOR ‘IMMORAL’ GAY MEN

A GAY ISLAND MUNY CREATED BY ITALY'S FASCISTS

Seventy-five years ago Fascist Italy, a group of gay men were labelled "generate", expelled om their hom and terned on an island.

They were held unr a prison regime - but some found life the untry's first openly gay muny a liberatg summer, tourists are drawn to the bety of a ty strg of rocky islands the jt recently a group of visors me to the Tremi archipelago not so much to enjoy the peace and lm of this remote place as to were gay, lbian and transgenr rights had e to hold a small ceremony durg which they would mark a shameful episo that unfold the islands more than 70 years the late 1930s the archipelago played a part the effort by Beno Msoli's Fascists to supprs homosexualy.

HOW MSOLI CREATED A GAY ISLAND COMMUNY

Gay men unrmed the image that the dictator wanted to project of Italian manhood. So the Italians are strong, mascule, and 's impossible that homosexualy n exist a Fascist regime, " says profsor of history at the Universy of Bergamo, Lorenzo the strategy was to ver up the issue as much as discrimatory laws were passed.

US WHE SUPREMACISTS FOUND GUILTY OF GAY PRI RT PLOT

But a climate was created which open maniftatns of homosexualy uld be vigoroly one particular police prefect the Sicilian cy of Catania took full advantage of the official mood. " So 1938 around 45 men believed to be homosexuals Catania were round up and nsigned to ternal exile.

They eventually found themselv about 600km away on the island of San Domo, the ptn, The 2008 graphic novel In Italia Sono Tutti Maschi tells the story of gay people exiled unr fascismThe whole episo has been largely 's thought that nobody who endured this punishment is still alive today, and there are few tailed acunts of what went on their book, The Island and the Cy, rearchers Gianan Goretti and Tommaso Giartosi talk of dozens of men, most but not all om Catania, endurg harsh ndns on San would arrive handcuffed, and then be hoed large, spartan dormori wh no electricy or nng water.

"We were cur bee they were lled 'the girls', " says Carmela Santoro, an islanr who was jt a child when the gay exil began to arrive. "The prisoners knew the exposure of their homosexualy would have ed shame and anguish for their fai back home eply nservative towns and of that mood is ptured a letter om the son of a Sicilian peasant, who had been trag to be a prit when he was round up. Unwtgly, the Fascists had created a rner of Italy where you were expected to be openly gay.

THE SAD BUT TE STORY OF SAN DOMO, FASCIST ITALY’S ISLAND FOR ‘IMMORAL’ GAY MEN

For the first time their liv, the men were a place where they uld be themselv - ee of the stigma that normally surround them voutly Catholic 1930s this meant to the exil was explaed a rare terview wh a San Domo veteran, named only as Gieppe B - published many years ago the gay magaze, Babilonia - who said that a way the men were better off on the island.

"In those days if you were a femmella [a slang Italian word for a gay man] you uldn't even leave your home, or make yourself noticed - the police would arrt you, " he said of his home town near Napl. Some prisoners wept, Gieppe said, when the outbreak of World War II 1939 led to the end of the ternal exile regime on San Domo, and the men were returned to a kd of hoe arrt the plac where they me ptn, Tremi/MPA number of gay men were terned along wh polil prisoners on other small islands, such as Usti and Lampsa, but San Domo was the only one where all the exil were is eply ironic that the Italy of that time, they uld fd a gree of eedom only on a prison party of gay and lbian rights activists who gathered on the archipelago the other day put down a plaque memory of the exil.