Italian gay groups protest after two men detained for kissing

Italian gays will hold public ''kiss-ins'' near the Colosseum this week to protest the detention of two men by police for kissing in front of the famous Rome monument, gay rights groups said.

Some lawmakers said they would discuss the incident in parliament, while gay rights groups accused the police of discrimination Saturday.

There were contradictory versions of the events that led to the detention.

Police confirmed the two men were held for about 40 minutes early Friday and released after being reported for committing lewd acts in public—a crime that can carry a sentence of up to two years in jail.

The two were ''not just kissing,'' and the officers would have detained the couple also if it had been a heterosexual one, police official Col. Alessandro Casarsa said.

''They acted because there was a couple that was committing a lewd act in front of one of the most viewed monuments in Italy,'' Casarsa said without elaborating. ''We apply the law to all in the same way, men and women.''

Arcigay, the main Italian gay rights group, hired a lawyer for the couple and identified the men as Roberto L. and Michele M., saying that the two, aged 27 and 28, had only shared a gesture of affection after a night out in the gay bars that line one of the streets near the Colosseum.

''Roberto and Michele were only kissing, all other statements are false,'' the group said in a statement.

Arcigay said it would hold its protest near the Colosseum on Thursday, while another group, the Mario Mieli Club, scheduled a rally of public kissing in front of the 2,000-year-old arena for Sunday night.

Vladimir Luxuria, a Communist politician and Italy's first transvestite lawmaker, was one of the representatives saying she would call on the government to explain the incident in parliament.

''It's worrying that a gesture of affection is considered a crime,'' she told La Repubblica daily. ''It's absurd that two young people who love each other should spend the night in a police station without having done anything obscene.''

While enraged by the detention, gay rights groups hailed as a victory a decision Friday by Italy's highest criminal court recognizing that gay people who migrate clandestinely to Italy should not be sent back to their country if they could face persecution, news reports said.

Italian dailies reported that the Court of Cassation, ruling on the expulsion order for a Senegalese immigrant, did not allow the man to stay but ordered a judge to reexamine his case and verify his claim that he would be persecuted at home. (Ariel David, AP)