Posted on 04/05/2009 12:55:28 AM PDT by Maelstorm
By Roberto Marchesini
NARTH International Representative - NARTH Italia
Italy's "Festival di San Remo," the most important musical happening in my country which is seen on T.V. by millions of Italians, became the unlikely platform this year for a powerful ex-gay testimony. The singer, Giuseppe Povia, winner of the festival in 2006, presented a song entitled, "Luca Era Gay" (Luca was once gay) -- SEE VIDEO HERE. The title of his song, implying that some gays can change to heterosexuality, was sufficient to destabilize the Italian gay movement. Gay activists threatened to block the festival, and Europarlimentary member Vittorio Agnoletto asked for a European resolution to stop Povia from peforming the song. Povia, himself, received death threats. The gay association "Everyone" denounced Povia to the Procura of the Republic for alleged "homophobia." These efforts failing, gay activists then asked the Festival organizers to "counterbalance" Povia with a song by a gay singer, about "the perfection of homosexual love." That effort too, failed.
Finally, on February 17th., Povia sang his song on the first evening of the Festival. "Luca Era Gay" recounts the transformation of a man named Luca from the gay lifestyle. Without the help of psychologists and psychiatrists, he digs deep within himself to understand the sources of his homosexual attractions. An emotionally disconnected, detached father and a smothering mother, he says, created confusion about his sexual identity: "I looked for men who would be my father, I went with men not to betray my mother." The song also alludes to a superficiality in homosexual relationships. He says, "between love and deceit, often we betrayed each other." The song ends with this verse: "This is my story, only my story. No disease. No healing. Dear dad, I forgive you even if you didn't come back. Mum, I often think of you, I love you and sometimes I still bear your reflection, but now I am a father and I am in love with the only woman I have ever loved." The music, a soft rap with dramatic tunes, carries a direct and honest text while never judging homosexually oriented people for their own personal lifestyle choices.
Before Povia's song was aired, the Italian comedian Roberto Benigni presented a twenty-minute show in which he condemned Povia, saying that homosexuality isn't a sin and that gays have been persecuted historically "because they love someone." He then read an excerpt from Oscar Wilde's "De Profundis."
After Povia's song, contrary to all custom, the conductor gave the microphone to Franco Grillini, former parliamentary member and former president of ARCIgay, the foremost gay association in Italy. Grillini said he had received a cellphone message from a friend (although all celphones were supposed to be turned off during the festival...), who had cried when he had just heard Benigni reading "De Profundis," because it brought to mind his partner who had died of AIDS. Grillini concluded by saying that Povia must learn what gay love is.
Then, the unforseeable happened: people in the theater started to hiss at Grillini (in Italy, hissing is like booing)! The crowd's sympathy was with Povia, not with the gay activist.
Povia's song went on to the finals and Saturday night, won second place in the San Remo Festival, while outside the theatre, gay activists continued to protest against him. Povia himself said: "I too had a gay phase--it lasted seven months and then I got over it."
The popularity of "Luca Era Gay" has given courage and dignity to the ex-homosexual community in Italy, who, until now, have been thoroughly intimidated by gay activists. The text's real-life insights regarding the ex-gay experience are undeniable.
TO SEE VIDEOS OF THIS SONG, CLICK HERE.
That’s a cool story! Thanks for posting it!
What a remarkably courageous man.
Yes he was. I think it illustrates something. It is an uplifting story to be told. People can grow beyond their personal frailties.
bump
NARTH does good work.
Interesting story
Only a comedian could say it with a straight face.
Interesting story. That had to be tough.
To Povia I would say....... “Welcome home.”
I had read about this before.
Notice the incredible power of art. How many articles and essays and whole books have been written laying out the truth from a million different angles?
Somehow a song, whose text could hardly be more simplistic, breaks the silence, intimidates the bullies, and gives courage to the right people.
One of the “institutions” the Marxists marched through in our society is the arts. The leftist nihilist message is pumped out through Rock and Rap. How long has it been since the last pop song about getting married and having kids was published—1947?
self-ping
Healthy news. I like it. It’s an oasis in today’s wasteland.
The supposed innate and immutable quality of homosexuality is a necessary political fiction. In order for homosexuals to be granted all sorts of special rights and privileges, it must be assumed that they are acting out of some unstoppable compulsion. Otherwise, their actions are just choices, and deserving of no special consideration.
But this political fiction has taken the place of common sense, and people have actually come to believe it is true.
Shows the difference between normal people and mentally disturbed liberals.
Thanks for posting this article. It was powerful... to think of Italians going forward with this artist and his song in the Festival despite homosexuals protesting, etc., it just powerful. It smacks of a nod to common sense and reality. Good that the audience repudiated the man allowed to fuss about the performance by doing one of his own, that is really terrific.
That is why the Islamists are against all art. That is why the leftists always want to pervert and corrupt art, and what they cannot corrupt, they want to censor.
If they can change, that proves that they are not born that way, and their whole argument is destroyed.
The gay lobby claims that. A: it is their choice, and, B: they can't help it, they were born that way. If you point out that this is a contradiction, you are labeled a "hater."
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