Mario Mieli

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Mario Mieli (21 May 1952, Milan – 12 March 1983) was a big figure in the 1970s Italian gay movement. He combined a theoretical perspective with a provocative public persona. His outrageous public behavior made him controversial, but he was still respected as one of the movement's important intellectuals. He's known among English speakers for Towards a Gay Communism, a political pamphlet from his major theoretical work Homosexuality and Liberation: Elements of a Gay Critique.

Life[]

Mieli was born in Milan on May 21, 1952 into a large and prosperous family. He lived for sixteen years on his family's estate near Como. He moved back to Milan with his family in 1968. Politically precocious, he threw himself into the 1968 student uprising, beginning a long commitment to revolutionary causes.

In 1971 he moved to London as a student, where he took an active part in the London Gay Liberation Front. He based himself in Milan in 1972 for university, and spent intermittent time in London until 1975. In April 1972, he, along with Massimo Consoli (1945–2007), Nicolino Tosoni (b. 1943), Angelo Pezzana (b. 1940) and the French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne (1920–2005) held the first homosexual demonstration against condemnation in Italy at a Congress of Sexology in San Remo.

In 1972, Mieli helped found the collective Fronte Unitario Omosessuale Rivoluzionario Italiano (Italian revolutionary homosexual united front). Better known by its acronym F.U.O.R.I! (Come out!), it was Italy's first major gay-rights group. After the collective united with the Italian Radical Party, Mieli criticized the move as "counter-revolutionary," since he thought the gay movement should remain independent of political parties. He left the organization over political differences in 1974–75.

After 1974 Mieli continued his activism by organizing the Collettivi Omosessuali Milanesi (Homosexual collectives of Milan). In 1976 the group's gay theatrical group, Nostra Signora dei Fiori, staged his play La Traviata Norma. Ovvero: Vaffanculo... ebbene sì!. This outrageous production was successfully staged in Milan, Florence, and Rome. It deliberately presented behavior designed to flout conventional, heterosexual norms. While people found this behavior outrageous or frightening, others knew him as a person who enjoyed cross-dressing, capable of being charming in private.

By 1976, Mieli had graduated and began revising for publication his doctoral thesis in Moral Philosophy. The revision was published as Elementi di critica omosessuale. An English translation of the book was made by as Homosexuality and Liberation: Elements of a Gay Critique.

By 1981, Mieli became increasingly pessimistic about his cause. In 1983, he told friends about a book titled Il risveglio dei Faraoni (The Awakening of the Pharaohs). It was to be an autobiographical novel, set in Egypt featuring a resurrected Jesus. However, in early March, he decided to stop publication of the book, writing in a letter to a friend that the book might inspire someone to "have his hide". In a letter dated March 11, he wrote, "My book will not be published by my free choice".

Mario Mieli killed himself the following day, on March 12, 1983. He died at age 30 from asphyxiation by inhaling gas in his Milan apartment. It seems that Mieli's suicide stemmed from adverse reaction he expected from the book's publication. Although a pirated edition was later published, his family brought legal action and had all copies destroyed. Only in 1994 was Il risveglio dei Faraoni published legally.

In 1983, an association was founded in Rome dealing with the civil rights of the LGBTQ, named the Circle of Homosexual Culture Mario Mieli in his honour.

Works[]

Books[]

  • Mieli, Mario (1977), Elementi di critica omosessuale (in Italian), G. Einaudi, ISBN 978-88-07-10339-1, OCLC 3670522
  • Mieli, Mario (1980), Homosexuality and liberation: elements of a gay critique, Gay Men's Press, ISBN 978-0-907040-01-9
  • Mieli, Mario (1994), Il risveglio dei Faraoni (in Italian), Edito per conto dell'Associazione culturale Centro d'iniziativa Luca Rossi dalla Cooperativa Colibri, ISBN 978-88-86345-01-9, OCLC 34221019
  • Pezzana, Angelo (1976), La Politica del corpo (in Italian), Savelli, OCLC 3446167

Plays[]

  • Collettivo Nostra Signora dei Fiori (1977), La Traviata Norma : ovvero, Vaffanculo ... ebbene sì! (in Italian), L'erba voglio, OCLC 4005687
  • Ciò detto, passo oltre
  • Krakatoa

Pamphlets[]

  • Towards a Gay Communism [London: pirate productions, 1980]
  • Mieli, Mario; Santini, Francesco (1974), Comune futura (in Italian), OCLC 84592884

External links[]

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