‘Disgraceful’: Italy’s senate votes down anti-homophobic violence bill.

Bill would have made violence against LGBT people and disabled people, as well as misogyny, a hate crime

Italy’s senate has killed off a bill that would have made violence against LGBT people and disabled people, as well as misogyny, a hate crime.

The 315-member senate voted by 154 to 131 on Wednesday to block the debate on the law, named after the gay centre-left Democratic party (PD) legislator Alessandro Zan and previously approved by the lower house of parliament in the face of months of protests from far-right and Catholic groups.

Pina Picierno, a PD member of the European parliament, called the vote “one of the worst pages in the history of the Italian republic”.

According to the far-right parties that voted against the bill in the upper house, the law would have suppressed freedom of expression and promoted “homosexual propaganda” in schools.