In 1986, Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis threw a three-day party for her husband’s sixtieth birthday. Guests ate a cake decorated with 60 marzipan penises and were treated to a performance from the princess who, dressed as Marie Antoinette and accompanied by the Munich Opera, sang ‘Happy Birthday’ from astride a gilded cloud.
This week, the now 59-year-old princess is scheduled to speak at a major international gathering of anti-abortion and anti-LGBT rights groups. This is the 13th World Congress of Families (WCF) being organised in the Italian city of Verona where, last year, the local council passed a municipal motion to ‘prevent abortion’.
The WCF is an international network of US, Russian and other ultra-conservative activists – and their growing list of political allies – who oppose marriage equality for gay people, sex education and reproductive rights for women. Increasingly, though, they present their campaigns in a positive light: as ‘pro-family’.
