Italians protest at politician's anti-gay outburst

By Phil Stewart

ROME (Reuters) - Hundreds of Italians protested in the northern Italian city of Treviso on Saturday after the city's deputy mayor called for the "ethnic cleansing" of homosexuals from the area.

The protesters gathered outside city hall to demand Giancarlo Gentilini's resignation, some wearing pink triangles like the ones homosexual men had to wear in Nazi concentration camps.

Prosecutors were also looking into the deputy mayor's comments to see whether they might warrant a criminal investigation, Italian media reported on Saturday.

"Today's protest, which is joined by hundreds of people, will not be the last. It will be the first in a long series," said Aurelio Mancuso, the head of gay rights group Arcigay.

A member of the right-wing Northern League party, Gentilini said on Wednesday he was so fed up with gays having sex in a car park that he was going to order police to carry out "ethnic cleansing" of homosexuals.

"I will immediately give orders to my forces so that they can carry out an ethnic cleansing of f------," Gentilini told a local television station, in comments later posted on Web site YouTube, ">here

"The f----- must go to other (cities) where they are welcome. Here in Treviso there is no chance for f------ or the like."

His comments were roundly condemned, with some members of his own far-right party siding with angry ministers in centre-left government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi.