"There will be no gay pride in my Venice," mayor Luigi Brugnaro told La Repubblica newspaper. Photo: AP

"There will be no gay pride in my Venice," mayor Luigi Brugnaro told La Repubblica newspaper. Photo: AP

The BBC reports that the mayor of Venice wants to ban Gay Pride parades in the city.

“There will be no gay pride in my Venice,” Luigi Brugnaro told La Repubblica newspaper, before describing the event as both farcical and kitsch.

In the article, he claims that he’s not homophobic and, in fact, has gay friends.

Flavio Romani, the head of Italian gay rights group Arcigay group, criticized the mayor’s statement and suggested he come visit the Pride parade in Venice.

“We will be back next year and we invite the mayor to march at the head of the parade with us,” he told AFP news agency. “That way he will see what Gay Pride really is.”

Romani also accused Brugnaro of trying to impose his rigid viewpoints on a “cosmopolitan city.”

Brugnaro is adamant about his opposition to the event, and certainly the idea of hosting the event.

“Let them go and do it in Milan, or in front of their own homes,” he said.