I’m impressed with this comment by MalikTous to my article in Maclean’s about being LGBT in Italy.

The Roman Republic (750 to 500 BC) was pretty advanced for their time. The civilisation that resulted created such things as cement and concrete, improved the sciences of irrigation and water transfer, initiated Europe into the idea of paved roads, and set a standard we still use today for the width of full sized vehicles on roads and railroad tracks. But ever since the Empire and Cæsars took up from the fall of the republic, Rome/Latia/Italy has been going down hill. From such scum as Gaius Caligula and Nero, the development of a corrupt police system that spawned the Cosa Nostra and Unione Siciliano organised crime syndicates, and the infestation currently named Vatican City, came all sorts of sinful scams and frauds. The Borgia family and their love of poison, the rampant pædophilia and homophobia of the Catholic Church emanating from their Vatican City bastion, the short lived but crippling treason of Benito Mussolini, and all the other imperialistic and fraudulent spasms of that dying Empire left serious injuries in the human race we still deal with. We should require that homophobia be shed like the diseased reptile skin waste it is, and arrest all who cannot limit their prejudices to simple fair competition in a sports arena.