News
Gay man elected governor of Sicily
Former mayor well known as anti-Mafia crusader
Rosario Crocetta, former mayor of Gela who became known as an outspoken crusader against the Sicilian Mafia, came in first place in a ten candidate race. (Photo by DEEEP Project via Wikimedia)
In a development considered unthinkable just a few years ago, an openly gay man won election as governor of Sicily in an Italian regional election on Sunday.
Rosario Crocetta, 61, a former mayor of the Sicilian city of Gela who became known as an outspoken crusader against the Sicilian Mafia, came in first place with 30.4 percent of the vote in a ten candidate race.
The Italian news service ANSA reports that although Crocetta’s vote total isn’t large enough for a governing majority for the center-left Democratic Party, under whose banner he ran, he is expected to form a coalition government in the Sicilian Parliament with one or more of the other parties.
“Today is more than an election result, it is a date with history,” the AFP news service quoted Crocetta as telling journalists.
“It’s the first time that a candidate for the left is elected as regional governor, it’s the first time that an anti-Mafia candidate wins,” AFP quoted him as saying in referring to Sicily.
Political commentators in Italy and Europe viewed Crocetta’s election as significant because he beat the center-right candidate aligned with former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, Nello Musumeci, who received 25.7 percent of the vote.
Berlusconi’s center-right People of Freedom Party and other right-leaning parties have won nearly all elections in Sicily since the end of World War II.
While campaigning in August, Crocetta startled some political observers when he said in a press interview that he would abstain from sex if elected governor, or president, as the head of the Sicilian government is sometimes called.
“If I were to become Sicily’s president, I would say farewell to sex,” he told the Klaus Condicio news website. “I will consider myself married to my region and its inhabitants.”
Crocetta won election as mayor of Gela, located on Sicily’s southern coast, in 2003 as a member of the Italian Communist Party, becoming Sicily’s and Italy’s first openly gay mayor. He joined the Democratic Party in 2008, one year before he left office as mayor.
His long record as a champion of government reform and his role as a leader of Sicily’s anti-Mafia movement attracted strong support among voters in Gela who, according to some observers, took the extraordinary step of supporting a gay candidate in a conservative leaning region.
His anti-Mafia work also resulted in numerous death threats requiring that he receive 24-hour police protection during his years as mayor.
He is fluent in Arabic, French, and English and served as Sicily’s cultural liaison to Middle Eastern countries, including Tunisia, Yemen, and Lebanon before becoming mayor. After completing two terms as mayor he served as one of Italy’s representatives in the European Parliament.
World Pride 2025
D.C. liquor board extends drinking hours for WorldPride
Gay bars, other liquor-serving establishments can stay open 24 hours
D.C.’s Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Board, which regulates liquor sales for the city’s bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and other establishments licensed to serve alcoholic beverages, has approved extended hours for alcohol service and sales during the days when most WorldPride events will be held in the nation’s capital.
In a May 2 announcement, the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration, which works with the board, said the extended liquor serving and sales hours for WorldPride will take place beginning Friday, May 30, through 4 a.m. Monday, June 9.
Although the official schedule for WorldPride events shows the events will take place May 17-June 8, most of the large events, including a two-day Pride street festival, parade, and concert, were expected to take place between May 30 and June 8.
According to the ABCA announcement and an ABCA spokesperson, liquor servicing establishments with the appropriate license can stay open for 24 hours and serve alcoholic beverages from 6 a.m. through the day and evening until 4 a.m., with no liquor sales allowed from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. during the May 30-June 9 period.
The ABCA announcement says liquor serving establishments must apply for the extended hours option and pay a $100 registration fee by a deadline on May 27.
Sources familiar with the liquor board have said the board has for many years approved the extension of liquor serving and sales hours for important events and for certain holidays such as New Year’s Eve.
At the time it approved the extended hours for WorldPride the liquor board also approved extended hours during the time when games for a World Cup soccer tournament will be held in the city on June 18, June 22, and June 26.
It couldn’t immediately be determined how many of D.C.’s 22 LGBTQ bars plan to apply for the extended drinking hours. David Perruzza, owner of the Adams Morgan gay bar Pitchers and its adjoining lesbian bar A League of Her Own, said he will apply for the 4 a.m. extended hours option but he does not intend to keep the two bars open for the full 23 hours.
Under the city’s current alcoholic beverage regulations, licensed liquor serving establishments may serve alcoholic beverages until 2 a.m. on weekdays and 3 a.m. on weekends.
The Vatican
Executive director of LGBTQ Catholic group to travel to Rome for conclave
Marianne Duddy-Burke met Pope Francis in 2023
The executive director of a group that represents LGBTQ Catholics will travel to Rome next week for the papal conclave that starts on May 7.
DignityUSA Executive Director Marianne Duddy-Burke on Thursday told the Washington Blade she will arrive in Rome on May 6. Duddy-Burke said she plans to spend time in St. Peter’s Square “and have conversations with people.”
“I will wear Dignity insignia, have rainbow flags,” she said.
Pope Francis died on April 21. His funeral took place five days later.
The Vatican’s tone on LGBTQ and intersex issues softened under the Argentine-born pope’s papacy, even though church teachings on homosexuality did not change.
Francis, among other things, described laws that criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations as “unjust” and supported civil unions for gays and lesbians. Transgender people were among those who greeted Francis’s coffin at Rome’s St. Mary Major Basilica before his burial on April 26.
Duddy-Burke and two others from the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics met with Francis in October 2023 during a meeting that focused on the Catholic Church’s future. Duddy-Burke noted Francis “invited” her and her colleagues as his “special guests for the audience and then had a conversation with him afterwards.”
“For me the sort of visibility that he (Francis) brought to our community and to our concerns feels irreversible,” said Duddy-Burke. “He empowered so many people and so many new ministries.”
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu — the archbishop of Kinshasa in Congo who has described homosexuality as an “abomination” — is among the cardinals who are reportedly in the running to succeed Francis.
“I really don’t know,” said Duddy-Burke when the Blade asked her who the next pope will be. “Of course, I am hoping and praying hard that it will be someone who will continue to lead the church on responsiveness of human need and greater inclusivity.”
“What happens in that room is such a mystery,” she added.
World Pride 2025
Episcopal bishop to speak at WorldPride human rights conference
Trump demanded apology from Mariann Edgar Budde over post-Inauguration sermon
The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde is among those who are scheduled to speak at the WorldPride 2025 Human Rights Conference that will take place from June 4-6.
Budde, who is the bishop of the Diocese of Washington, in January urged President Donald Trump “to have mercy” on LGBTQ people, immigrants, and others “who are scared right now” during a post-Inauguration service that he and Vice President JD Vance attended at the Washington National Cathedral. Trump criticized Budde’s comments and demanded an apology.
The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde speaks at the Washington National Cathedral on Jan. 21, 2025. (PBS NewsHour clip)
A press release the Washington Blade received notes Icelandic Industries Minister Hanna Katrín Friðriksson, UK Black Pride founder Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, and Bob the Drag Queen are among those who are also expected to participate in the conference.
The conference will take place at the JW Marriott (1331 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.) and registration is open here.
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