Florence Is Burning
FLORENCE, Italy — Radical queer energy is eternal. For millenniums it has endured suppression, oppression, legal, religious and moral sanction, torture, witch hunts, pogroms, a holocaust, caricature and stereotype and several plagues.
Yet it survives and thrives in all its subversive glory, surfacing in the most unlikely of places. Take, for example, Anna Konda.
This character in a leotard, cheap pumps and a tatty blond wig is a persona adopted by Ervin Latimer, a queer designer of mixed race who hails from Finland.
Potty-mouthed and as tall as the point guard Mr. Latimer was expected to become, Anna Konda is outlandish in her heart. So much so that she commandeered a spot as special guest designer at Pitti Uomo, the world’s largest fair devoted specifically to men’s wear; rather than exploiting the opportunity to promote Mr.
