Tavarnelle Val di Pesa, a city in the province of Florence, will offer
public housing to young couples regardless of their sexual orientation. A
recent amendment to public housing regulations, which allocates housing on a
points system, gives extra points to young couples, gay or straight, and single
parents under 40.
‘We want to invest in young people,’ explained David Baroncelli, vice
mayor of Tavarnelle, ‘including all those who wish to start a family or share
life projects through various forms of co-habitation: married couples, young
people living together or same-sex couples. It is an operation for the
recognition of rights and the promotion of diversity.’
The amendment was approved 14 to 1. (For more information, see www.tavarnellevp.it.)
Elsewhere in the province, the parish priest of Le Piagge in Florence,
Don Alessandro Santoro, made headlines when he stated in an interview with the
magazine Panorama that he allows same-sex couples in his parish to participate in
pre-marital courses together with heterosexual couples. Don Santoro is well
known for his acceptance of homosexuals in his parish, contrary to the rulings
of the Catholic church. On October 25, 2009, after he married a same-sex couple
in the church of Le Piagge, he was removed from the parish for six months.
