A gay island community created by Italy's Fascists

[Amun]

Seventy-five years ago in Fascist Italy, a group of gay men were labelled "degenerate", expelled from their homes and interned on an island. They were held under a prison regime - but some found life in the country's first openly gay community a liberating experience.

Every summer, tourists are drawn to the beauty of a tiny string of rocky islands in the Adriatic.

But just recently a group of visitors came to the Tremiti archipelago not so much to enjoy the peace and calm of this remote place as to remember.

These were gay, lesbian and transgender rights activists.

They had come to hold a small ceremony during which they would mark a shameful episode that unfolded in the islands more than 70 years ago.
Tremiti Islands

Back in the late 1930s the archipelago played a part in the effort by Benito Mussolini's Fascists to suppress homosexuality.

Gay men undermined the image that the dictator wanted to project of Italian manhood.

"Fascism is a virile regime. So the Italians are strong, masculine, and it's impossible that homosexuality can exist in a Fascist regime," says professor of history at the University of Bergamo, Lorenzo Benadusi.

So the strategy was to cover up the issue as much as possible.
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No discriminatory laws were passed. But a climate was created in which open manifestations of homosexuality could be vigorously suppressed.

And one particular police prefect in the Sicilian city of Catania took full advantage of the official mood.

"We notice that many public dances, beaches and places in the mountains receive many of these sick men, and that youngsters from all social classes look for their company," he wrote.

He said he was determined to halt this "spreading of degeneration" in his city "or at least contain such a sexual aberration that offends morality and that is disastrous to public health and the improvement of the race".

He went on: "This evil needs to be attacked and burned at its core."

So in 1938 around 45 men believed to be homosexuals in Catania were rounded up and consigned to internal exile.

They eventually found themselves about 600km away on the island of San Domino, in the Tremitis.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22856586

[Kenshiro]

Seventy-five years ago in Fascist Italy, a group of gay men were labelled "degenerate", expelled from their homes and interned on an island. They were held under a prison regime - but some found life in the country's first openly gay community a liberating experience.

Every summer, tourists are drawn to the beauty of a tiny string of rocky islands in the Adriatic.

But just recently a group of visitors came to the Tremiti archipelago not so much to enjoy the peace and calm of this remote place as to remember.

These were gay, lesbian and transgender rights activists.

They had come to hold a small ceremony during which they would mark a shameful episode that unfolded in the islands more than 70 years ago.
Tremiti Islands

Back in the late 1930s the archipelago played a part in the effort by Benito Mussolini's Fascists to suppress homosexuality.

Gay men undermined the image that the dictator wanted to project of Italian manhood.

"Fascism is a virile regime. So the Italians are strong, masculine, and it's impossible that homosexuality can exist in a Fascist regime," says professor of history at the University of Bergamo, Lorenzo Benadusi.

So the strategy was to cover up the issue as much as possible.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote


No discriminatory laws were passed. But a climate was created in which open manifestations of homosexuality could be vigorously suppressed.

And one particular police prefect in the Sicilian city of Catania took full advantage of the official mood.

"We notice that many public dances, beaches and places in the mountains receive many of these sick men, and that youngsters from all social classes look for their company," he wrote.

He said he was determined to halt this "spreading of degeneration" in his city "or at least contain such a sexual aberration that offends morality and that is disastrous to public health and the improvement of the race".

He went on: "This evil needs to be attacked and burned at its core."

So in 1938 around 45 men believed to be homosexuals in Catania were rounded up and consigned to internal exile.

They eventually found themselves about 600km away on the island of San Domino, in the Tremitis.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22856586

It's near my area of origin (Gargano, North Apulia) but the people speak another dialect because during the reign of the two Sicilies it was repopulated with people from Ischia (an island near Naples) it would be interesting to see some gedmatch results of the Tremiti
fun fact: Gheddafi tried to make them a part of Libya, because Libyan rebels were brought there during fascism, the mayor of the Tremiti islands who was re-elected, was a friend of Gheddafi, he asked for a DNA test to demonstrate that there was still Libyan DNA in the population (Libyans were very few even during fascism, and in a short time they died of typhus) the result of the test was negative, there was no Libyan DNA, but the mayor and the colonel maintained a friendship