Furor in Italy over "Gay Nativity' in Parliament

From Reuters, via Yahoo:

Furor in Italy over "gay nativity" in parliament
By Philip Pullella Wed Dec 20, 11:38 AM ET

ROME (Reuters) - Two leftists in Italy's ruling coalition on Wednesday outraged fellow lawmakers by placing four dolls representing homosexual couples near the baby Jesus in the official nativity scene in parliament.

The two parliamentarians from the small "Rose in the Fist" party said their gesture was to promote the legalization of gay marriage and granting legal recognition to unmarried couples.

Bruno Mellano and Donatella Poretti placed the Barbie and Ken-type dolls in the parliamentary nativity scene, each couple lying down embraced among the shepherds witnessing the birth of Jesus.

Each of the two doll couples, which parliamentary ushers removed after a few minutes, wore miniature placards with slogans in favor of gay rights.

"This is a vulgar and unacceptable double attack against both a (national) institution as well as a religious symbol," a group of women parliamentarians of the opposition conservative Forza Italia party said in a statement. .........

The rest of the story is at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061220/wl_nm/pope_nativity_dc

don-we-now-our-gay-apparel

Someone first came up with the bright idea of making one of the Wise Men black, and giving one of the others a distinctly Asian cast. "God forbid!," the zealots cried. "Diversity has nothing at all to do with Christmas!"

The hostile bigotry that comes from so-called "God-fearing" people never ceases to amaze me.