Italian High Court rules that calling someone 'gay' isn't an insult

It is commonly thrown around as a casual insult, but Italy’s high court has ruled that calling someone gay should not be considered offensive.

A leading judge at the Cassation Court in Rome has said that the term homosexual does not have an ‘intrinsically offensive meaning as, perhaps, might have been considered in the not-so-distant past’.

The ruling was delivered after a 60-year-old man had his libel conviction quashed for using the same term last year.

It stated that the term, which relates to an individual’s sexual preferences, is of ‘neutral character’ – meaning that it cannot harm anyone.

But the ruling has now been slammed by gay rights groups – who say that it could give rise to homophobic bullying within schools.

Fabrizio Marrazo, a spokesman for The Gay Centre, said: ‘In Italy there is no law against homophobia that bans discriminatory insults as exist in other countries.

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‘This ruling would be clearer if such legislation was in place.’

The ruling came after Italy approved civil unions between gay couples earlier this year – becoming the last country in the western world to do so.