Man and woman make couple: Gay lovers denied entry to couples' beach party in Italy

A couple in Italy were denied entry to a beach party for couples by a bouncer who said ‘a couple is only made of a woman and a man'.

The couple, Giuseppe Pitirollo, 37, and husband Daniele Bausilio, 28, were initially told they can't go into the party near Naples because they weren't with women.

According to the bouncer, it was a ‘couples only’ event. The pair told him they were a couple who had registered a civil union last June.

According to Gay Star News, Giuseppe and Daniele encountered the bouncer at Lido Turistico Beach Park in Bacoli.

Their outrage was confounded when the venue owner intervened and tried a different approach by saying the two men were drunk.

Giuseppe and Daniele said they were willing to take an alcohol test to prove they were not drunk.

However, they were still denied entry and filed a discriminatory police report.

'We felt humiliated. They diminished us in front of other people,’ said Giuseppe.

In a statement, Lido Turistico Beach Park denied refusing the couple entry because they were gay.

They wrote on Facebook that 'homophobia doesn't belong here'.

While same-sex civil unions were recognised in Italy in 2016 it is still not recognised by the Catholic Church.