From my perspective, they’re about equal. As someone who doesn’t know either, I would tackle Italian first. Both (as well as Spanish) are based on Latin, so learning one should help you learn the other. I think there are more French speakers in the world, though, but since Italian and Spanish are (or at least seem) closer, learning Italian might also help with Spanish learning. With regards to LGBTQ+, I think France is a bit more liberal than Italy, but I’m really not sure.

I know next to no French OR Italian. I dabble in Japanese, Spanish, and German (in addition to English and bad English), but I only know ~50 words in each. A bit less in German. I am by no means multilingual, but I will greet people in four or five different languages just to be a smartass.