Inside Italy’s centuries-old queer religious pilgrimage

Inside Italy’s centuries-old queer religious pilgrimage

The sound of tambourines and high-pitched yelps reverberates off the mountains near Avellino in southern Italy. Dozens of people dance in a kind of trance as others form circles around them, singing local folk songs between sips of homemade red wine. Inside the courtyard of a monastery, small groups climb the steps leading up to the church door on their knees, reciting prayers to the Black Madonna of Montevergine. Every February, scores of femmi…