Gay Italian Man Wins Lawsuit

Ok so this story was from a few days ago, but I feel like something needs to be said about this. An Italian man who openly admitted his homosexuality was given a DISABLED drivers license because the police felt that being gay was a mental handicap!! I don't know about you guys, but I think this is just down right ridiculous. Is the world really still so ignorant to claim that your sexual orientation determines your mental stability? But hey, at least the dude got $160k out of those rude italian police... GO YOU GAY DUDE FROM ITALY! Go buy yourself and your bf something nice, perhaps a shopping spree, I hear Italy has some amazing high fashion shopping districts... seriously!

Original Story: The Associated Press
Published: July 14, 2008
ROME: The Italian government was ordered to pay €100,000 ($160,000) to a gay man who received a driver's license for the disabled after he volunteered information on his sexual orientation to military authorities, the man and a gay-rights group said Monday.
Danilo Giuffrida, 27, said he told officials about his homosexuality when he took a physical after being called up in 2000 for Italy's mandatory year of military service, which has since been abolished.
Giuffrida told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his home city of Catania, Sicily, that he had hoped to avoid service and keep working to help support his family. He was disqualified from military service for psychological reasons.
"It's the old assumption that, if one is homosexual, then he is also psychologically disturbed," said Aurelio Mancuso, president the main Italian gay rights group, Arcigay.
Giuffrida's lawyer, Giuseppe Lipera, said a military official sent his client's paperwork to motor-vehicle officials in Catania, who changed his standard driver's license to one for the disabled.
Giuffrida said the disabled license must be renewed every year instead of every 10 years, as is the case for standard licenses.
"Some overzealous officer took upon himself the task of sending the paperwork" to the motor vehicle office, Lipera said. "Evidently, they thought that his sexual preferences were a mental disorder."
A judge in Catania ordered the transport and defense ministries to pay damages to Giuffrida in a ruling handed down last week. The court was closed Monday afternoon, and the transport ministry had no immediate comment.
Defense officials said they had requested information on the case from military authorities in Catania.
Arcigay praised the court ruling and said it hoped the case would raise awareness about discrimination.
"In Italy, we still need to understand that differences among people make a country richer, not poorer," Giuffrida said. He did not say if his standard license had been restored.
He said that he would use some of the money to buy a car.