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Wednesday, 13 February 2008 |
Demonstrators march through Piazza Campo
Dei Fiori square, in Rome,
during the ‘No Vat’ protest last Saturday. AP Photo/Andrew Medichini
Approximately 2000 demonstrators,
including numerous representatives of Italy’s
gay, lesbian and transsexual communities, were protesting what they say is the Vatican’s
unwanted interference in public debate.
As well as calling for equal rights for
gays and lesbians, protesters demanded the abolition of religious courses in
public schools; freedom of choice in all aspects of life, including women’s
rights to abortion on demand; and an end to the Vatican’s tax exemptions
and other privileges the Catholic Church enjoys under the Lateran pact of 1929
separating it from the Italian state.
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