Who knew a handful of drag nuns could be so threatening?
Italian Catholic leaders are pulling out all the stops to prevent World Pride 2000, an international gay pride event five years in the planning, from desecrating Rome during the Jubilee Year. Among their other efforts, according to PLANET OUT, eleven of the city’s prominent religious-minded citizens have written to Al Gore, asking him to either withdraw his public support for the event, or at least to “request the organizers to…refrain from any manifestation of anti-Catholic hatred against Catholic principles and symbols.”
The sacreligiously-wimpled Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are probably partially responsible for the Italians’ reluctance to host thousands of flaming tourists. Their past run-ins with Catholic authority include conflict with San Francisco Archbishop William Levada over an Easter Sunday anniversary bash.
As a result of all this, Italian Interior Minister Enzo Bianco is threatening to revoke World Pride’s permission to march through Rome. In which case, say organizers, they’ll simply take their march via a different route — straight through the heart of the Vatican.
