This month, right-wing Italian MP and Berlusconi groupie Michaela Biancofiore hit the headlines with a ministerial career that was short, even by Italian standards. Appointed on a Friday, critics took instant exception to a junior equalities minister who opposed gay marriage, refused to make physical contact with a lesbian and suggested that “anyone who goes with a trans has serious issues of sexual identity”.
A spirited rearguard action, in which she accused “gays” of “ghettoising themselves”, only confirmed her unsuitability. She was dismissed in time for the Sunday breakfast news.
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