A gay couple was denied entry to a beach party for couples by a bouncer who denied the entry by claiming that a couple comprises of a male and a female. Giuseppe Pitirollo, 37, and husband Daniele Bausilio, 28, were initially told that they can’t go to the party as they don’t have a woman with them. The party was happening near Naples.
The bouncer stopped them and told them that they are only allowing people who are a couple, to which both of them replied that they are a couple and they have registered as a civil union last June.
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Their outrage was confounded when the venue owner intervened and tried a different approach by saying the two men were drunk. Giuseppe and Daniele said they were willing to take an alcohol test to prove they were sober.
The couple filed a discriminatory complaint to the police saying that they felt humiliated, ‘We felt humiliated. They diminished us in front of other people,’ said Giuseppe. ‘Seeing our rights being denied in such a blatant way was just shameful.’
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In a statement, Lido Turistico Beach Park denied refusing the couple entry because they were gay. They wrote on Facebook that ‘homophobia doesn’t belong here’. Same-sex civil unions were discovered in 2016 in Italy, but same-sex gender is still not recognised in the Catholic Church in Italy.