Francesca's courage. The ordeal of a lesbian girl

Article published on Huffington Post Italy site March 7, 2019

"Better a dead daughter than lesbian", these were the words spoken eight years ago by the mother of Francesca, 23 years old Palermo whose dramatic story is reported today byRepublic. When the girl's parents discovered the sexual orientation of her daughter, the beatings arrived and even rape. Taking advantage of the absence of his wife, his father abused the young woman to punish her.

Years after the drama immediately, the girl has finally found the courage to report and tell her story:

Francesca has decided to be a civil party against her parents, that the substitute prosecutor of Termini Imerese AnnaDomenica Gallucci wants to bring to trial with heavy accusations. "Mistreatment, sexual violence and persecutory acts". They also did three days in prison. They deny them, they have always denied. Sure of the silence of the community in which they live. It is a country in the province of Palermo, who pretended not to see, not to hear. Indeed, he always helped his father to find his daughter when she ran away.

According to the girl's testimony, Francesca was only 15 years old when the mother and father discovered what her sexual orientation was through gods sms exchanged with friends. To tell it was the girl herself:

I cut my hair and a male dress, my family had already understood something about my choices. Then, one morning I left my cell phone at home, my sister read the messages and showed them to my father. That day they ran to school to take me. Everyone. My father, my mother, my sister and her boyfriend. And while we were in the car, they gave me barrels on my head, in the legs, they gave me barrels everywhere.

The family went to take her to school and, once brought home, locked her in her room. Just a few hours later, her father took advantage of her to punish her.

It was then that the Father embarked, saying: "You have to look at these things, not women". And he raped it [...] After the abuses a sequence of messages to his friends. SMS himself for all: "Buttana, leave my daughter staying". And then they destroyed the girl's cell phone.

Over time, the young woman attempted suicide 3 times and, once the age of majority, she fled the house, leaving that violent family and a country that knew everything behind but hid behind the silence. After abandoning his Christmas home, Francesca lived in a protected community for some time and only then did he come to the decision to report.