Collective Association in the LGBT movement

This chapter first provides a brief overview of the LGBT movement in Italy, then details the main ways in which Berlusconi’s actions impacted on it, and subsequently explores and analyses responses and resistance to Berlusconi and Berlusconismo. Material for this chapter is drawn from textual sources, as well as from interviews conducted in 2007.2 I make no claim to present an exhaustive picture of the movement under Berlusconi, but through my focus on a range of groups I trace commonalities in their experiences during this period, and identify significant dominant and counter discourses within the movement. I suggest that while the perceived hostility of Berlusconi’s government to LGBT rights united differing elements of the movement, failure to achieve their main collective objectives (obtaining equal rights, including the legalization of civil unions) has inspired some more radical factions to forge activist alliances elsewhere