In response to Tracy Terhune's post, in which he refers to us, on his designated hate Affairs Valentino blog...which he has posted two times and then two times deleted, with the original post appearing first on August 9th, I quote, citing as fair use with this screenshot-tino:
I met Renato Floris through Valentino, at the Convegno Valentino held in 2009 in Turin as I was invited by the hosting University to speak on my research into the controversy of Valentino's sexual orientation. Renato worked on a Valentino documentary produced by Italian television in the mid-90's and in this capacity he attended the conference. So that is how we met.
It was love at first sight and despite the bureaucratic complications of his being Italian and my being American we have been together ever since.
I refuse to take Terhune and Bret's outrageous stereotyping bait... as they try elicit a defense from me for their portraying me as a woman who dominates, who would be attracted to a man just to control him and who would still perceive someone I divorced almost two decades ago as being an “alpha” anything. How misogynistic can they possibly be? And again I call them out for mocking a photograph of Renato wearing a Morrocan robe as being a man wearing a "dress". I repeat that is homophobic, transphobic and drag-phobic.
But for the record, Renato Floris is not just my husband, my partner, my best friend and confidant and my great love but he is the witty and knowledgeable guru of the great and passionate opinion. We appreciate every single day just how blessed we are to have found each other and are grateful we met when we did and how we did. A true Valentino love story.
I would not use the word, “alpha” to describe my ex-husband but I think in describing Terhune and Bret we could sure call them “Omega”.
