Gabriele, 13, died of homophobia

Reflections by Massimo Battaglio

Was Gabriele gay? We don't know. And maybe he didn't even know. But his schoolmates had decided like this. They mocked him throughout a year, until they make him the decision to change school. But not even there, things were not going better.

Saturday 11 November 2023, in the house of Palermo where he lived with his parents, Gabriele took his life. After misunderstandings and quarrels also in the family, he waited for his to move away and made the extreme gesture. They had forbidden him to go out, maybe they feared something for him, maybe who knows.

The carabinieri were called; The prosecutor has opened two files; The school has also been involved. The crime of "induction to suicide“, Perpetrated both via the web and in the school environment. The school therefore closed every activity for two days, a little to participate in mourning and a little to allow investigations.

"We inform you that for reasons related to a sudden mourning that hit our school community, the teaching activities will be suspended on Monday 13 November 2023, including the afternoon of the musical and sporting address. Classes 1 and A/C/G/H/L will not carry out the teaching exit in carbon, the same has reprogrammed for Wednesday 12/11/23 with the same organization " (document shown by Fanpage.it)

From there the wave of the news started. And the thing can only please, paradoxically. In fact, it is rare that when behind a tragedy there is homophobia, you want to admit it. Often it is preferred to glissce on the same suicide, whatever the reason. If the reasons are of homophobic character, it is almost always hidden. It is a bit of a form of respect: not that you necessarily think that homosexuality is stuff to be hidden, but you do not want to reveal it so as not to invade the victim's intimacy. When, then, to commit suicide, he is a very young boy, like Gabriele, it happens that his sexual identity is not yet known to the family, and then it takes a long time to understand.

And so, Gabriele's story was also presented by the generalist media in a very prudent way, all too shy.

“Palermo, thirteen -year -old takes his life. The Prosecutor investigates for instigation to suicide: perhaps the victim of the bullies " Headlines the Corriere del Mezzogiorno, without mentioning the reasons for bullying itself. Live Sicily It remains even more on the vague: "Thirteen -year -old suicide in Palermo, school in shock: immense suffering". Only the Daily Fact He has a little more courage: "Palermo, thirteen -year -old takes his life. Investigation for instigation to suicide: bullies victim, also derided for sexual orientation ".

The case of Gay.it which, on its daily page dedicated to homophobia, deals with the case with wealth and warns that the service is updated: "Palermo, suicide at 13 years for bullying, mocked for the alleged emotional orientation". That term is important "alleged“, Because none of us will ever know if Gabriele was actually gay or bisexual or trans. His companions had established it, yes, obviously infected by a homophobic climate that breathe from an early age.

On Tuesday there was the funeral, with the usual manifestations of dismay and emotion. The Corriere di Palermo He reports the interventions of the family, of the teachers, of the priest.

“We are all destroyed for this tragedy - say the parents - You left an unbridgeable void. I hope you can find the serenity and peace you were looking for and that perhaps we have not been able to find it. Watch over us. You are loved with a love as deep as the sea. Thirteen times thanks, for every smile you have given us ". We also watch over them, whatever the affections or problems that have lived with their Gabriele.

“Gabriele was with us since last year - add the teachers - He had integrated perfectly into the school, in the last theme he spoke of the future and his dream of social commitment. Nothing was not supposed to an extreme gesture. We are close to the pain of this family: to mom, dad and sister. Hi Gabriele we will miss so much ". It must be really difficult, for a teacher, truly enter in tune with his students. Now, this story tells us that the integration had not gone so well.

And the celebrant, Don Salvatore Pistorio: “There are no words to explain this absurd gesture. This society has changed, these social networks have changed our life. Gabriele is an angel who has risen to heaven today, is found in the peace and justice of God. We are here, however, we must reflect on today's society. You guys present here were born and raised in this context, for us big ones it is an alarm bell of what does not go to our society. I make an appeal to young people, if you have any problems: talk about it. If you don't feel like talking to your parents, trust with us priests too, but open yourself, because talking to someone, maybe things can take a different aspect ".

His intentions are beautiful, Don Salvatore. But do you think that a boy who has problems because of his sexual orientation, does he have a great desire to confide in a Catholic priest? Maybe she is good, of wide views, open to all. But what are the messages that a boy usually receives about the attitude of the Church towards homosexuality? On! Let's not always blame social media. Let's also take our part.

“The fault - writes Gianluca Nicoletti on La Stampa - It is certainly ours too, that we are not able to oppose convincing arguments that are not purely ideological, towards those who still speak of conspiracies aimed at attentive to the laws of nature, those who see, in education from affectivity and understanding of any possible diversity, a sordid attempt to subvert the cosmic order. Until we pass as an essential value the ability to put the desertificated altars of the savages in discussions that we were, there will always be kids who seek lightness destined to succumb. The victims of other kids will continue to be, those we have ballast with our most plumbea obtuseness in accepting that the world has changed ".

These lines adapt very well to the statements received also from the honorable Brambilla (Forza Italia), president of the parliamentary commission for children and adolescence, of which the Sicilian newspaper reports the intervention in this regard:

“All my personal closeness goes to the family for a pain so great that you cannot even have a name. Too often we must record cases of emotional and psychological fragility in the youngest, on which the violence of peers bullies is grafted or even worse than adults, and too often the victims are left to face a humiliation that appears to be definitive and destructive in their eyes, until the extreme gesture of suicide.

To the increase in cases of youth depression, food disorders and self -harm, often attributable to the physical or psychological violence suffered, we respond with an investigation on the subject already deliberated by the childhood commission and with the hope that the bill on the prevention and contrast of bullying and cyberbullying, already fired from the Chamber, is quickly approved. Among many other things of common sense, the text includes a psychological support service to school children, to prevent situations of risk and discomfort also involving families ".

Honorable: we remind you that some members of your majority, just as he debuted of the bill you speak of, wanted the theme of sexual and emotional education to be exposed, which they defined with the terms of "nefarn", "hovering", "obscenity", "foul". Please!

And the same goes for Schifani, governor of the Sicily Region, of which we draw the opinions from Live Sicily:

“The tragedy of the thirteen -year -old student of Palermo who has committed suicide must make us reflect, even more, on everything that the region can and must do to prevent and contrast the phenomena of bullying and cyberbullying. A few weeks ago, precisely in implementation of our law, we have established a special regional consultation with the aim of collecting information on bullying and making initiatives to be put in place, in a synergistic perspective, together with all the public subjects involved. A path that aims to protect the educational, social and psychological growth of minors, protecting and supporting the most fragile subjects ".

"The Region to Pure married and promoted the pilot project of the Regional School Office to elaborate actions to combine the phenomenon, with the aim, among others, to prepare a detection and monitoring system that will welcome reports from schools or individual citizens and whose results will be presented in the next few days. Also in this context, within the strategic plan for the fight against educational poverty, recently approved by the junta, we have provided for the creation of specific school desks and prevention actions ".

Mr. President: it is simply shameful, in the face of the coffin of a boy killed by homophobia, reacting in such a propaganda way, listing the magnificences of his work, which, evidently, is not at all up to the situation.

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