Italy's new family minister on Wednesday thanked an opposition senator who branded her a lesbian, saying he had unwittingly boosted her prospects of finding a husband.
Family Minister Rosy Bindi said she had been swamped by messages from prospective male admirers since Senator Maurizio Saia had called her gay.
"I wanted to thank Senator Saia because it's never too late in life - who knows, maybe I will finally find the right
man," said the unmarried minister. Saia, a member of the rightist National Alliance (AN), sparked the row on Tuesday by saying on a TV talk show that Bindi was a lesbian and therefore unsuited to her job. "I don't think it's a secret and I have nothing against lesbians, but it must be clarified that Rosy Bindi is a lesbian," Saia said.
He said it was "not correct on a political level" to give the family portfolio to "someone who knows nothing about the family".
The senator later apologised for his comments, but not before they triggered an avalanche of angry reactions on both sides of the political divide. Bindi, a former health minister and centre-left Catholic, immediately denied she was a lesbian and said the senator's comments were offensive to gay people.
"I'm sorry for Senator Saia but even if I have decided against marriage for personal reasons, I happen to like men, those who are cultured, intelligent, who respect women and if possible are handsome. All qualities which Saia does not possess," Bindi said. Bindi said Saia's views betrayed "lingering discriminatory tendencies" in his party, which traces its roots back to Fascism.
Franco Grillini, a member of the Democratic Left party and a gay rights' activist, said that "we know Bindi isn't
gay but even if she were, she'd have no problems saying so. That's not the case with the gay MPs in AN and the rest of the centre right who are forced to hide their sexuality and lead double lives".
Other centre-left critics weighed into the row saying that by Saia's reasoning, the Church should also be excluded from the debate on family issues since the pope and priests were not family men.
