Similar to U.S. ex-gay poster boy Christopher Delaney, the Italian songwriter Povia believes that homosexuality is little more than a phase that anyone can overcome:
“[I] had a gay phase, it lasted seven months and then I got over it.”
Povia, a headliner for the upcoming Sanremo Music Festival, has raised the concern of Italian gay equality group Arcigay because he penned a song, Luca Was Gay, about an ex-gay man.
Pinknews says the song implies homosexuals can be “converted” to heterosexuality.
Aurelio Mancuso of Arcigay told Pinknews that Povia also said he has two friends that he has “converted” to being straight.
According to Pinknews:
Two years ago Povia won the Sanremo festival with a song about marriage, and the Vatican has been accused of overtly interfering with the event.
Mancuso believes that Luca Was Gay refers to Luca Tolve, who says he was “cured” of his homosexuality at the hands of controversial Catholic American psychologist Joseph Nicolosi.
A Facebook protest has accumulated more than 16,000 members since its launch in mid-January. It seeks to pressure festival organisers to remove Povia from the lineup.
