(Mirror.)

Seen as antithetical to traditional masculine ideals, gay men in Fascist Italy were targeted for discrimination and oppression—even though technically there had been no laws outlawing consensual same‐sex relations.

Mussolini believed homosexuality to be an imported vice and didn’t want to officially recognise activity that he considered to be fundamentally incompatible with a strong fascist country.

“Fascism was especially keen on spreading the myth of a stereotypical Italian virility,” explains researcher Tommaso Giartosio, co‐author of the 2006 book The City and the Island which explored the internal exile of gay men to the island of San Domino in Fascist Italy.

“The repression of homosexuality did take place, but it was carried out by the police very discreetly, through a procedure that deliberately avoided trials or any other kind of publicity.”

“When several hundred gay men were arrested in about half of Italy’s provinces, the newspapers didn’t report it at all.”