Italian parliamentary bickering reached new heights on Friday as a row broke out over the rights of a transsexual lawmaker to use the female toilets.
The storm blew up in the morning as Vladimir Luxuria, Italy's first transsexual MP and a former drag queen, took a toilet break during a House voting session.
Luxuria, a leftist who considers herself neither male nor female but prefers to be referred to as 'she', subsequently ran into Elisabetta Gardini, an ex-showgirl who is now the spokeswoman of opposition chief Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.
Gardini contested Luxuria's right to use the restroom, saying that "this is the ladies and you can't come in here".
Luxuria said afterwards that she always used the female toilets and had never had such problems before.
"I've been using female loos for years and the ones in the House for months. I would never have imagined being attacked in such a violent way," said the 41-year-old lawmaker, who was elected to parliament in April with the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC).
"Everyone is free to be who they want to be and I'm a transgender - and besides, using the men's would create even bigger problems," she continued.
"I hope Gardini's position is a personal one which doesn't represent all Forza Italia women MPs," Luxuria said, adding: "Being a real woman also means being understanding".
But Gardini told reporters she had found Luxuria's presence in the toilets a "sexual violence".
"It never entered my mind that I would find him in there... I went inside and saw him and it felt like violence, sexual violence. I really felt ill and why should I be made to feel like that?" she said.
She said the incident was a "discredit" to parliamentary organisation and suggested Luxuria be given a bathroom all to herself.
But the incident did not end there, going on to become the subject of a heated House whip debate.
While centre-left whips expressed outrage on Luxuria's behalf and their solidarity, some opposition representatives were reportedly less sympathetic.
Roberto Menia, deputy House whip for the rightist National Alliance (AN), was criticised for insisting that in his eyes, there was no MP called Luxuria and "only an MP called Guadagno (Luxuria's birth name)".
"If I were to enter the House in a miniskirt tomorrow, I would be thrown out," Menia reportedly added.
In the end, the whips agreed that the House speaker's office should resolve the issue.
Speaker Fausto Bertinotti, the former head of the PRC who recruited Luxuria, said that "I'm sorry this issue has come up because it should be sufficient to resort to virtues that parliament should not lack - respect for others or at least tolerance".
"I believe in complete respect for individual choices in terms of sexual orientation and personality," he added.
MPs tasked with ensuring order in the House sided with Luxuria, saying that "decisions concerning sexual identity are personal ones and as such should be respected".
But the opposition Catholic, centrist UDC party indicated that it would not let the matter rest there.
UDC House Whip Luca Volonte' said that "as far as I'm concerned there are only two sexes - male and female. Gardini is female and Guadagno is male. If Bertinotti and others believe there are other sexes then they must make a formal decision on the matter which does not offend the rights of women and which we will in any case oppose".
The election of Luxuria, who was born Wladimiro Guadagno in the southern region of Puglia, was seen as a breakthrough for gay rights' campaigners.
Known for intelligence and wit, supporters look to Luxuria to help overcome alleged lingering prejudice against homosexuals in traditionally Catholic Italy and boost their battle for the rights of same-sex couples.
Luxuria, whose party is the third-largest in Premier Romano Prodi's governing coalition, has vowed to lobby for the legal recognition of such unions.
The MP has stopped short of fighting for recognition of gay marriages, saying that "Italy isn't ready for that yet".
Prodi pledged in his election manifesto to give cohabiting couples including same-sex ones administrative and financial rights but is expected run into opposition from centrist, Catholic allies.
