Gay street opens in Rome
By Marta Falconi, Associated Press Writer
August 3, 2007

ROME --Rome marked the opening of its first "Gay Street" with flags, banners and protests amid a row over a homosexual couple who claimed they were detained by police for kissing near the Colosseum.

Campaigners welcomed a 325-yard zone in the center of the city -- filled with shops and bars -- as an area where gays can "feel at ease," after days of heated debate in predominantly Roman Catholic Italy over the kissing incident.

The two men were detained briefly last week for what the police said were lewd acts in public -- a crime that can carry a sentence of up to two years in jail. the rest