ABSTRACT
Italy's approach to homosexuality has tended to be one of silence in law, repression in practice. The first penal code of the unified Italian state appeared in 1998. It eliminated references to homosexual relations between consenting adults in private. Only homosexual behavior that offended public morality was criminalized. This approach corresponded to that of the Catholic church, for which sodomy was considered an unmentionable sin but was tolerated in practice. During the Fascist period, homosexuality was not mentioned in the penal code. At the same time the police applied forms of repression ranging from beatings to internment.
