DownWithTyranny!: Bronze Age Morals-- Roberto De Mattei Teaches Hatred And Bigotry As History

Backwardness in a suit and tie

Roberto De Mattei isn't some redneck from rural Tennessee, Georgia or Alabama. He's not from Mississippi or Utah. In fact, he's a Rome-based professor, well known for his anti-Science perspective and as an apostle of religious hatred and bigotry. He's also the president of a right-wing outfit in DC-- the Lepanto Foundation, an anti-gay operation that manages to cow the IRS enough so it pays no taxes. Lately the history professor with strong ties to Italy's criminally corrupt former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, has been running around declaring that European public opinion is in the midst of an anti-gay renaissance. "I say Latin because in France you’ve had enormous protests against same-sex 'marriage' and in Italy we have the March for Life, where we are of the same mind as the American March for Life. Each is characterized by being spontaneous, grassroots movements." A real right-wing dirt-bag, this guy.

He's facing calls to resign as the vice president of the Center of National Research after his latest outrageous statements that twist history for his own hate-fueled ideology. Sounding like a garden variety evangelical huckster from the South, he blamed the Japanese tsunami on "Divine Punishment." And now went on the radio to tell people that "The collapse of the Roman Empire and the arrival of the Barbarians was due to the spread of homosexuality. The Roman colony of Carthage was a paradise for homosexuals and they infected many others... The invasion of the Barbarians was seen as punishment for this moral transgression. It is well known effeminate men and homosexuals have no place in the kingdom of God. Homosexuality was not rife among the Barbarians and this shows God’s justice comes throughout history."

Actual historians are outraged that De Mattei's close ties with the Vatican, with Berlusconi and with education minister Maria Stella Gelmini put him into unmerited positions to spread his calumny and hatred.

Historian Emilio Gabba, a leading light in Roman history, said: "It is highly improbable homosexuality led to the fall of the Roman Empire."

Professor Lellia Cracco Ruggini, an expert on Roman history from Turin University, said: "There is no proof Rome had a high number of homosexuals. I can safely say Rome did not fall because it was gay." However research would seem to suggest homosexuality was rife in ancient Rome.

The 18th century expert Edward Gibbon wrote that "of the first 15 emperors, Claudius was the only one whose taste in love was entirely correct."

Homosexuality is widely portrayed in ancient Roman art and was seen as acceptable 2,000 years ago.

This marriage equality demonstration at the Vatican is , apparently, not part of De Mattei's "Latin Spring:"

In the new issue of New York, Frank Rich has a long, emotive piece on ancient gay history. Except "ancient" is more like the pre-Stonewall 1960s than Roman times. The new Out deals with a very different straight man than Roberto de Mattei, with a very different message. De Mattei is clearly stuck in Bronze Age superstitions filled with fears and hatred but Ben Haggerty is... well, a more modern kind of guy. You may know him as Seattle's white rapper, Macklemore.

Handsome, fabulously dressed in a bright red suit that fits snugly on his slender frame, with perfectly cropped and coiffed hair. At first glance, one could take Macklemore (real name: Ben Haggerty) for the nation’s first mainstream gay rapper. He is, after all, a flashy 29-year-old dandy who saunters around in $450 blue velvet Stubbs & Wootton slippers, an MC who struck gold with a number 1 hit about vintage shopping, and a flamboyant showman who cemented his arrival in March with a rousing performance on Saturday Night Live in which he literally skipped across the stage (it drew 5.8 million viewers). But such an assumption would be relying too much on the same stereotypes Macklemore himself tackles in his breakthrough single, “Same Love.” No, he’s not gay. (In fact, he’s engaged to his tour manager and girlfriend of seven years.)