> Super!
>Viviane
>=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
> http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/25/1077676829290.html >Gaily dodging military service
>By Sophie Arie
>Rome
>February 26, 2004
>
>It is not the sort of trick you would expect the stereotypical Italian male
>to pull. But when it comes to dodging the draft, machismo goes out of the
>window.
>
>Exploiting a provision barring gays from military service, more than 150= men >are thought to have paid two doctors for certificates diagnosing them as
>suffering from "sexual anxieties" and being "incompatible" with the stress
>of living together in dormitories and using communal bathrooms.
>
>Doctors at Padua military hospital rumbled the scam when they noticed an
>unusual number of gay men coming from a small area in northern Italy in the
>Alto Adige region, near the Austrian border. A police investigation found
>that several of them had girlfriends or wives.
>
>Marianna Tschoell, 60, was arrested for putting them in touch with two
>doctors, Roberto Mandredi, 64, and Domenico Bossio, 38, who are being
>investigated for allegedly writing the certificates for =803000 ($A4881)= each. >
>Investigators fear that it may be one of many scams used by men who,= despite >being deeply prejudiced against gays, are pretending to come out rather= than >spend the obligatory 10 months in the army, the carabinieri or the civil
>police.
>
>Genuine gays appear to have more compunction about using the provision,
>seeing it as discriminatory. Arcigay, the main gay rights movement in= Italy, >said only about 200 gays used it each year, while 15,000 got through
>military service keeping their sexual orientation a secret.
>
>Italian military conscripts are asked questions such as: "do you like
>flowers?" "do you like women?" and "have you ever felt yourself attracted= to >members of your own sex?"
>
>But Arcigay estimates that up to 10 per cent of the men and 20 per cent of
>the women serving in the armed forces and police are gay.
>
>=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
>*** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material= is >distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
>receiving the included information for research and educational= purposes.*** >
>
>
>
>
>
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