Vladimir Luxuria
Encyclopedia
Foggia
Foggia is a city and comune of Apulia, Italy, capital of the province of Foggia. Foggia is the main city of a plain called Tavoliere, also known as the "granary of Italy".-History:...
, Apulia
Apulia
Apulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its most southern portion, known as Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy. The region comprises , and...
(June 24, 1965) is an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
actress, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
and television personality. Luxuria was a Communist Refoundation Party
Communist Refoundation Party
The Communist Refoundation Party is a communist Italian political party. Its current secretary is Paolo Ferrero....
member of the Italian parliament, belonging to Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...
's L'Unione
The Union (political coalition)
The Union was an centre-left coalition of political parties in Italy. It was led by Romano Prodi, Prime Minister of Italy from April 2006 to April 2008, and former President of the European Commission.-Parties:...
coalition. He was the first openly transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
member of Parliament in Europe, and the world's second openly transgender MP after New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
er Georgina Beyer
Georgina Beyer
Georgina Beyer was the world's first openly transsexual mayor, as well as the world's first openly transsexual Member of Parliament, and from 27 November 1999 until 14 February 2007 was an MP for the Labour Party in New Zealand.-Early life:Georgina Bertrand was born and assigned male at birth, and...
. He, however, had lost her seat in the election of April, 2008.
Although Luxuria lives exclusively as a female, he has not undergone sex change
Sex change
Sex change is a term often used for gender reassignment therapy, that is, all medical procedures transgendered people can have, or specifically to sexual reassignment surgery, which usually refers to genitalia surgery only...
surgery; and remains physically and legally male. He has stated on occasion that he perceives herself as neither male nor female
Third gender
The terms third gender and third sex describe individuals who are categorized as neither man nor woman, as well as the social category present in those societies who recognize three or more genders...
.
In the 2006 general election
Italian general election, 2006
In the Italian general election, 2006 for the renewal of the two Chambers of the Parliament of Italy held on April 9 and April 10, 2006 the incumbent prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the center-right House of Freedoms, was narrowly defeated by Romano Prodi, leader of the center-left The...
, Luxuria was elected to the Chamber of Deputies
Italian Chamber of Deputies
The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...
by the Lazio 1 constituency in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. He lost her seat in the 2008 election
Italian general election, 2008
A snap general election was held in Italy on 13 April and 14 April 2008. The election came after President Giorgio Napolitano dissolved parliament on 6 February 2008 following the defeat of the government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi in a January 2008 Senate vote, and the unsuccessful tentative...
. After the retirements of Beyer and Luxuria, there have been no transgender MPs reported in the world, until 2011, when Anna Grodzka
Anna Grodzka
Anna Grodzka is a Polish politician. Grodzka was elected to the Sejm in the 2011 Polish parliamentary elections as a candidate for the liberal Palikot's Movement. She is the first ever transsexual MP in European history....
was elected to the Polish parliament
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
.
Biography
Luxuria moved to Rome in 1985 to study foreign languages and literature. He also began to act, notably in cabaretCabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
, and through this developed her gender ambiguity
Gender identity
A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...
as a hallmark. Her assumed surname, Luxuria, means lust in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
. She earned her first acting credit in Cena alle nove by Paolo Breccia in 1991; and began organizing parties and gay pride
Gay pride
LGBT pride or gay pride is the concept that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity...
events, becoming director of the Muccassassina, the self-financing party of the Circle of homosexual culture Mario Mieli. She organized Italy's first pride festival, in Rome on June 2, 1994, which attracted some ten thousand people.
From 2001 to 2003 she toured Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
theatres with the musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
Emotions co-starring with Sabrina Salerno
Sabrina Salerno
Sabrina Salerno , also known in her singing career as Sabrina, is an Italian singer, television hostess, model, actress and record producer...
and Ambra Angiolini
Ambra Angiolini
Ambra Angiolini was an Italian TV host and singer in the '90s. Nowadays she mainly works as an actress.Her career began in 1992, at the age of 15, when she took part in the second edition of Non è la Rai....
.
Her career as performer was not restricted to stage shows, and in 2005 she hosted a television show about nostalgia for 1980s music and culture on All Music
All Music
All Music was an Italian free-to-air television station which mainly broadcast music videos and music programs. Originally called Rete A, the name was changed to Rete A - All Music , and for a brief period was affiliated before with MTV Italy and after with VIVA.-History:In late 2004 the former...
. She also became well known for participating in charity organizations before making the transition to politics.
Luxuria identifies using the English word "transgender" and prefers feminine pronouns, titles, and adjectives. She is legally male. Despite choosing not to undergo sex reassignment surgery, she has had some operations to make herself more identifiably female; such as the permanent removal of facial hair
Facial hair
Facial hair is a secondary sex characteristic of human males. Men often start developing facial hair in the later years of puberty or adolescence, approximately between 17–20 years of age, and most do not finish developing a fully adult beard until their early 20s or even later...
, a rhinoplasty
Rhinoplasty
Rhinoplasty , also nose job, is a plastic surgery procedure for correcting and reconstructing the form, restoring the functions, and aesthetically enhancing the nose, by resolving nasal trauma , congenital defect, respiratory impediment, and a failed primary rhinoplasty...
and partial breast construction. Upon entering parliament, she made the decision to stop wearing her trademark drag clothing
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
- an extravagant cocktail of sequin
Sequin
Sequins are disk-shaped beads used for decorative purposes. They are available in a wide variety of colors and geometrical shapes. Sequins are commonly used on clothing, jewelry, bags, shoes and lots of other accessories. Large sequins, fastened only at the top, have been used on billboards and...
s, feather boa
Feather boa
A feather boa is a fashion accessory that is usually worn wrapped around the neck like a scarf.-Construction:A boa can be made of fur, but it is usually made instead from various types of feathers. Ostrich, marabou, chandelle, and turkey are the most common feathers used, although non-feather boas...
s and bouffant wigs - saying that the legislature was "not a discothèque" and that, "It wouldn't be useful to provoke [people] in such a stupid way."
After her bid for re-election failed in April 2008, Luxuria appeared on L'Isola dei Famosi, which has been described as "Italy's celebrity answer to Survivor
Survivor (TV series)
Survivor is a reality television game show format produced in many countries throughout the world. In the show, contestants are isolated in the wilderness and compete for cash and other prizes. The show uses a system of progressive elimination, allowing the contestants to vote off other tribe...
". The show, which saw her pip Argentine model Belen Rodriguez (former girlfriend of Italy footballer Marco Borriello
Marco Borriello
Marco Borriello is an Italian footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club Roma. He has previously played for other Italian clubs, including Milan, Sampdoria, Treviso, Reggina, Empoli, Triestina, and Genoa.-Early career:...
) to first place in a public poll, took place in Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
. Luxuria said of her victory that "The Italian public has shown itself to be more forward-looking than our politicians, who thought I would turn up in parliament dressed like (former porn-star politician) Cicciolina." Obligated to donate half of her 200,000€ prize-money to charity, Luxuria chose UNICEF, saying "I know that I won't have children and I want to help disadvantaged children in my own way."
Election in 2006
Although her Lazio 1 constituency was seen as a safe CommunistCommunist Refoundation Party
The Communist Refoundation Party is a communist Italian political party. Its current secretary is Paolo Ferrero....
seat, her election was not without difficulties, particularly after it was disclosed that she had been a sex worker
Sex worker
A sex worker is a person who works in the sex industry. The term is usually used in reference to those in the sex industry that actually provide such sexual services, as opposed to management and staff of such industries...
for a time shortly after arriving in Rome because finding a normal job is extremely difficult for a transgender individual. Clemente Mastella
Clemente Mastella
Mario Clemente Mastella is an Italian politician. He is currently leader of Popular-UDEUR, a minor centrist Italian party. He was Minister of Labour in the Berlusconi government from 10 May 1994 to 17 January 1995, and Minister of Justice in the Prodi government from 17 May 2006 to 17 January 2008...
, the leader of the centrist UDEUR party (a fellow member of the coalition) called her "a ridiculous Cicciolina". Alessandra Mussolini
Alessandra Mussolini
Alessandra Mussolini is an Italian politician, the granddaughter of Benito Mussolini, and previously an actress and model...
, granddaughter of the Fascist dictator
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
said, referring to Luxuria, that it was "better to be a fascist than a faggot" (meglio fascista che frocio). However, Luxuria was placed second on the list of Communist candidates for Lazio, after party leader Fausto Bertinotti
Fausto Bertinotti
Fausto Bertinotti is an Italian politician and former leader of the Partito della Rifondazione Comunista. On April 29, 2006, after the center-left coalition's victory in the Italian general election, he was chosen by the new parliament as President of the Chamber of Deputies .-Trade...
, which increased her chances of being elected (Italy uses a system of proportional representation
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
).
During the election, she and another candidate were attacked by a group of fifteen people, allegedly including Alleanza Nazionale
National Alliance (Italy)
National Alliance was a conservative political party in Italy.Gianfranco Fini was the leader of the party since its foundation in 1995, however he stepped down in 2008 after being elected to the nominally non-partisan post of President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and was succeeded by...
politicians; they pelted her with fennel
Fennel
Fennel is a plant species in the genus Foeniculum . It is a member of the family Apiaceae . It is a hardy, perennial, umbelliferous herb, with yellow flowers and feathery leaves...
(in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
finocchio, a word also meaning "faggot"). The politicians in question were suspended by AN; Luxuria criticized the police for the time it took for them to respond to the incident.
Service
Her service in the Italian parliament got off to a rocky start, when in October 2006 Forza ItaliaForza Italia
Forza Italia was a liberal-conservative, Christian democratic, and liberal political party in Italy, with a large social democratic minority, that was led by Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime Minister of Italy....
MP Elisabetta Gardini
Elisabetta Gardini
Elisabetta Gardini is an Italian actress and politician from Veneto.A popular actress and RAI host close to Christian Democracy, Gardini was an unsuccessful candidate for Patto Segni in the 1994 general election...
insisted that she should not have been allowed to use women's washrooms in the parliament building and called for the creation of a third washroom. Gardini described finding Luxuria in there as "sexual violence"; she later faced condemnations from coalition deputies for displaying prejudice tantamount to racism. Luxuria declared that she had used the toilets for years and that using the male lavatory would engender (sic?!) even greater problems.
In the 2008 election
Italian general election, 2008
A snap general election was held in Italy on 13 April and 14 April 2008. The election came after President Giorgio Napolitano dissolved parliament on 6 February 2008 following the defeat of the government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi in a January 2008 Senate vote, and the unsuccessful tentative...
, the Refoundation Communist Party joined a coalition of left-wing parties known as the Rainbow Left
The Left – The Rainbow
The Left – The Rainbow , frequently referred as Rainbow Left , was a left-wing federation of parties in Italy....
. However this group gained only 3.2% of the vote and lost all of its seats in parliament. Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
's centre-right coalition swept to victory. Luxuria was not re-elected. Paolo Ferrero
Paolo Ferrero
Paolo Ferrero is an Italian politician, member of the Communist Refoundation Party and former Italian Minister of Social Solidarity in the Prodi II Cabinet.-Career:...
, then leader of the Communist Refoundation Party, said that he would be open to the idea of her returning to politics as a nominee for the European Parliament election, 2009
European Parliament election, 2009
Elections to the European Parliament were held in the 27 member states of the European Union between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making these the biggest trans-national elections in history...
after her win on L'Isola dei Famosi, but Luxuria said that she had no plans to re-enter politics.
Gay rights
Luxuria has long been a strong advocate for gay rights and a participant in events promoting equality for homosexuals. She helped organize Italy's first gay pride festival in 1994 and continued her activism throughout her tenure as a politician; in May 2007, she took part in the second Muscovite gay prideMoscow Pride
Moscow Pride is a demonstration of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered persons . It was intended to take place in May annually since 2006 in the Russian capital Moscow, but has been regularly banned by Moscow City Hall, headed by Mayor Yuri Luzhkov until 2010...
parade.
She used her prominence in Italian politics once elected as a platform for advocating gay rights. In the lead-up to her election, Luxuria made gay rights an issue of her campaign and felt herself a representative of the LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
community, saying, "We don't want privileges - we want our rights." In addition, Luxuria called for civil union
Civil union
A civil union, also referred to as a civil partnership, is a legally recognized form of partnership similar to marriage. Beginning with Denmark in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in many developed countries in order to provide same-sex couples rights,...
s to be enabled for gay couples and for Italy to accommodate political asylum for "all the gays who try to get into Italy from countries where homosexuality is punishable by death".
Luxuria also campaigned prior to the elections for gays to have cohabitation
Cohabitation
Cohabitation usually refers to an arrangement whereby two people decide to live together on a long-term or permanent basis in an emotionally and/or sexually intimate relationship. The term is most frequently applied to couples who are not married...
rights, and had helped campaign by winning the support of Italy's left. Furthermore, Luxuria outlined her long-term support for full gay marriage rights, comparable with Spain's implementation of the law
Same-sex marriage in Spain
Same-sex marriage in Spain has been legal since July 3, 2005. In 2004, the nation's newly elected social democratic government, led by President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, began a campaign for its legalization, including the right of adoption by same-sex couples...
. In September 2006, she stated that the Vatican
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
's ongoing influence in politics, specifically in regards to gay marriage, contravened clauses of the Italian Constitution. Luxuria reacted to Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
's end-of-year speech in 2008, when he compared protecting the environment with saving humanity from a "blurring of gender" (homosexual or transsexual behaviour), by saying that such comments were "hurtful".
Filmography
- Cena alle nove (1991)
- Come mi vuoi (1996)
- Tutti giù per terra (1996)
- Sono positivo (1998)
- La vespa e la regina (1999)
- Guardami (1999)
- Ponte Milvio (1999)
- Ogni lasciato è perso (2000)
- Mater Natura (2005)
Theater
- Che fine ha fatto Cenerentola? (2003)
- One Drag Show (2003)
- Male di Luna (2004)
- My name is Silvia (2005)
- Persone naturali e strafottenti (2010)
- La donna uomo (2010)
- Morning has broken - Una vita spezzata (2010)
- Si sdrai perfavore (2011)
Television
- Maurizio Costanzo ShowMaurizio CostanzoMaurizio Costanzo is an Italian television host and journalist. He is married to Maria De Filippi, an Italian television host.-Biography:Costanzo was born in Rome....
(Canale 5Canale 5Canale 5 is an Italian private television network of Mediaset, the media branch of Fininvest. Canale 5 was the first private television network to have a national coverage in Italy in 1980, based on a local channel, TeleMilano 58, founded in 1978....
) (1995) - Markette - Tutto fa brodo in TV (La7La7La7 is an Italian television channel owned by Telecom Italia Media and operated by Telecom Italia.-History:In 2001, Lorenzo Pellicioli and Roberto Colaninno, of Telecom Italia announced they had acquired Telemontecarlo, in order to create a strong competitor against the six other national channels...
) (2004–2008) - One Shot Evolution (All MusicAll MusicAll Music was an Italian free-to-air television station which mainly broadcast music videos and music programs. Originally called Rete A, the name was changed to Rete A - All Music , and for a brief period was affiliated before with MTV Italy and after with VIVA.-History:In late 2004 the former...
) (2006) - L'Isola dei famosi 6L'isola dei famosiL' Isola dei Famosi is a reality show on RAI Due, host by Simona Ventura.The format is the Italian edition of the program Celebrity Survivor! Charlie Parsons, as indicated in the credits...
(Rai 2) (2008) - L'Isola dei famosi 8L'isola dei famosiL' Isola dei Famosi is a reality show on RAI Due, host by Simona Ventura.The format is the Italian edition of the program Celebrity Survivor! Charlie Parsons, as indicated in the credits...
(Rai 2) (2011)
External links
- Vladimir Luxuria
- "Meglio fascista che frocio" A short passage of the video showing the quarrel between Mussolini and Luxuria. (as Vladimir Luxuria) (as Wladimiro Guadagno)
- Vladimir Luxuria