Anna Paola Concia (born 4 July 1963, in Avezzano) is an Italian politician and gay rights activist.

Biography

Concia was born in Avezzano, and she graduated in

sports science Sports science is a discipline that studies how the healthy human body works during exercise, and how sport and physical activity promote health and performance from cellular to whole body perspectives. The study of sports science traditionally inc ...

from L'Aquila's Istituto Superiore di Educazione Fisica; following her graduation, she has worked as a

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorat ...

and

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

instructor. She first became involved with politics while at ISEF, and she was initially a member of the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...

. Concia moved to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in 1992 following the death of her mother and the collapse of her marriage. She worked as a parliamentary assistant before working as an adviser to

Anna Finocchiaro Anna Finocchiaro Fidelbo (; born 31 March 1955) is an Italian politician. She was the Democratic Party's leader in the Senate from 2007 to 2013. She served as Minister for Equal Opportunities in the cabinet of Romano Prodi from 1996 to 1998. Bio ...

, the minister responsible for equal opportunities. Concia later advised

Giovanna Melandri Giovanna Melandri (born 28 January 1962 in New York City) is an Italian politician. She was an MP in the Italian Parliament for 18 years (1994-2012) and held the positions of Minister of Culture (1998- 2001) and Minister of Youth and Sport (200 ...

after her promotion to Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities in 1998. Following the 2001 general election, Concia left politics to pursue her work in tennis. She

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

a year later. Concia was named as the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

's spokesperson on

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

, and she used her position within the party to become a prominent activist for equal rights. She was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in the 2008 general election. In August 2011 she married her wife Ricarda Trautmann in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Concia, Paola 1963 births Living people People from Avezzano Italian Communist Party politicians Democratic Party of the Left politicians Democrats of the Left politicians Democratic Party (Italy) politicians Deputies of Legislature XVI of Italy Politicians of Abruzzo Italian LGBT rights activists Lesbian politicians 21st-century Italian women politicians 20th-century Italian women politicians LGBT legislators in Italy Women members of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy)