Italian Wins Damages Over Gay Driving Test Retake

[DeSwiss]

Italian wins damages over gay driving test retake

Sat 12 Jul 2008, 14:09 GMT


ROME (Reuters) - An Italian court has ruled the government must pay 100,000 euros (79,981 pounds) in damages to a man who was told to retake a driving test because he was homosexual. When 26 year-old Danilo Giuffrida told doctors he was gay at his medical examination for military service, they passed the information to the transport ministry, who told him he must repeat his driving test or have his licence withdrawn due to his "sexual identity disturbance."

Giuffrida agreed to re-take his test, passed it for a second time, but the ministry renewed his licence for just one year rather than the usual 10 years because of his homosexuality. The judge ruling on the case in Catania, on the southern island of Sicily, said the actions of the defence and transport ministries showed "evident sexual discrimination" against Giuffrida and ran counter to his constitutional rights.

The behaviour of the ministries led Giuffrida to have "a grave sense of mistrust towards the state," added the judge, who ordered them to pay him 100,000 euros of damages in his verdict issued on Saturday. Giuffrida's lawyer said the case marked the first time the state had been punished for sexual discrimination, and he hoped Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would "summon Giuffrida and apologise to him on behalf of the state and all Italians."

Giuffrida said the sentence was "a step forwards for civil rights because from now on what happened to me can't happen again."

http://africa.reuters.com/odd/news/usnL12503938.html">LINK

- Sometimes the idiocy is so self-evident, it requires no commentary. I just hope the award he got comes out of these Transportation Ministry clown's pockets....
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DeSwiss


http://www.atheisttoolbox.com/">The Atheist Toolbox

[Fearless]

1. Good for him!

[DarkTirade]

2. I was just coming here to post this, ya beat me to it.

This is a big WTF right there. I've heard of being in trouble because of Driving while Black or Driving while a Teenager... but this is a new one by me.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7503861.stm">Another link to the story on BBC news.

[galledgoblin]

3. oopsie, duped this story

my initial reaction was to laugh... this bigotry is laughably over the top.
but it also deeply bothers me that this had to go to court to get overthrown.

now, obviously Italy isn't entirely Catholic, but I think we can all agree that Rome has a great deal of influence on policy.

I was raised (liberal) Roman Catholic, and while I now identify as "agnostic humanist", I do still have deep respect for the liberal followers. I figure we'll see a schism in the Church within my lifetime... my sister just entered the St. Lawrence River "heretic" seminary. while obvious problems caused by the conservative structure and solutions offered by the liberal "heretics" will be a great contributing factor, it's also going to be caused by idiocy like the above example.

a few months ago, Rome issued another edict telling followers that they cannot receive Communion -that they are excommunicated- if they, get this, use birth control. when the leaders are THAT behind and distanced from the average follower, the followers eventually start to lead.

[mtnester]

4. Sexual identity disturbance?

sigh

[UndertheOcean]

5. that would be funny if it wasn't disturbing