Re: Toronto ugly gay 'couple' wins lawsuit against Italian government for 'offensive use of their image'

[Gay baby rapers]

On 24 Aug 2023, Culture War <now...@protonmail.com> posted some
news:uc8olv$3m0s5$7...@dont-email.me:

> It's just a matter of time before these homosexual pedophiles are
> arrested.

One of the happiest moments of Toronto couple Frankie Nelson and BJ
Barone's life turned into a nightmare when a far-right political party
used a photo of them hugging their newborn son in an anti-surrogacy
campaign in Italy.

"You can see in the moment of the photo that it was a culmination of all
my dreams coming true," Nelson said in an interview with Yahoo Canada.

The photo shows an emotional moment captured shortly after Nelson and
Barone welcomed their son Milo into the world in 2014 via surrogate.
Caught up in the haze of new parenthood, the couple didn't think much of
photographer Lindsay Foster's request asking if she could post the photo
on social media.

The new parents agreed, and shortly after, Nelson received a call from a
friend saying the photo had gone viral and garnered hundreds of
thousands of views.

While the pair received an outpouring of love from around the world, in
an unexpected twist, the photo was slapped onto an anti-surrogacy
campaign without their consent by right-wing Italian political party
Fratelli d’Italia in 2016, Nelson said.

Italy's now-ruling party — the FdI won the country's 2022 election, led
by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — has been ordered to pay Barone and
Nelson 10,000 euros each for “offensive use of their image,” seven years
after the ordeal began.

"I think this sends a strong message to the haters that pride and love
is always going to win," Nelson said, though the couple has not received
the payment yet as the government has appealed the court's decision. "I
hope our win sets some sort of a precedent sending a message to Italy to
stop doing this."

Posters featuring the couple were circulated around Italy by far-right
political group Fratelli d'Italia for an anti-surrogacy referendum they
were pursuing at the time. Translated from Italian to English, the
poster read: "He will never be able to say mom."

"We just felt no control," Nelson said.

He added that they felt confused, wondering how the narrative of the
photo — in which they only see love, care and joy — could shift so
drastically by powers beyond their control thousands of kilometres away.

Unsure of how to even approach the situation, Nelson and Barone turned
to social media posting a plea for help.

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/Wsyga_JDgRLArUmdKaaZ9g--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaG
xhbmRlcjt3PTI0MDA7Y2Y9d2VicA--/https://s.yimg.com/os/creatr-uploaded-imag
es/2023-08/3da9a070-3e1b-11ee-bff1-c1749db9b507

Legal action
With both Nelson and Barone teaching at Toronto high schools at the
time, the concept of hiring a legal firm seemed unattainable.

In a twist of fate, Italian LGBTQ+ law firm Gay Lex extended an offer to
represent the couple pro-bono.

"We felt like we had nothing to lose and decided to sue," Nelson said.

Court proceedings against the political party dragged on for seven
years.

"After year six we began to lose hope," Nelson admitted. "We did not
expect COVID, We didn't expect a very-far right neo-fascist party to
ever get elected, or expect to then be suing the party that rose to be
Italy's leading party along with the (prime minister)."

In June of this year — Pride Month 2023, no less — Nelson and Barone
received some long-awaited good news.

"We won! It blew our minds. It felt very fitting to us that it happened
in June and during Pride Month, and our son Milo was born during World
Pride in Toronto. It just felt full circle," Nelson said.

Who are the Fratelli d’Italia?
The Fratelli d'Italia, also known as the Brothers of Italy, are a
national-conservative and right-wing populist political party in Italy
currently in power led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

The political party's website states: "The Fratelli d'Italia movement
promotes the peaceful coexistence of peoples, states, ethnic groups and
religious confessions while respecting sovereignty, independence and
national unity."

While campaigning, Meloni platformed a vision that was anything but
peaceful coexistence of peoples.

Meloni, a self-professing Christian, litters her speeches with
anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and conservative stances on family values.

“Yes to natural families, no to the LGBT lobby, yes to sexual identity,
no to gender ideology, yes to the culture of life, no to the abyss of
death,” she said while addressing supporters of Spain’s rightist Vox
party in Marbella in June 2022.

"Giorgia Meloni is really trying to promote the concept of a nuclear
family, even though she is a divorced woman herself," Nelson said.

Italy according to Giorgia Meloni: no country for non-traditional
familiesScroll back up to restore default view. As Meloni has stepped
into her role as prime minister, Italy remains the only western European
country that has not legalized same-sex marriage.

In March 2023, Italian city halls were ordered to officially stop
recording the names of both parents within city registers in the case of
same-sex couples, a move that was denounced by gay activists, according
to reports.

"Meloni says that for a child to grow up well, they need a mother and a
father. It is insulting to hundreds of thousands of families with two
same-sex parents," Yuri Guaiana of activist group All Out said in an
interview with PBS News Hour.

More recently, in May 2023, Meloni dodged criticism from Canadian Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau at the G7 Summit about her government's stance
on LGBTQ+ rights.

In a television interview, Trudeau can be heard saying “Canada is
concerned about some of the positions Italy is taking on in terms of
LGBT rights.”

Meloni looked on in annoyance, twiddled her thumbs and listened in
silence offering little retort.

https://news.yahoo.com/toronto-couple-wins-lawsuit-against-italian-govern
ment-for-offensive-use-of-their-image-182742915.html