PQ & A

This was the message on one of the posters carried down Republic Street in Valletta a few days ago in an activity organised by the Malta Gay Rights Movement (MGRM) and attended by a small group of people. But the organisers were satisfied at the turnout. After all this was the first Gay Pride Parade in Malta.

The low-key parade in such a prominent place fits in with the consistent strategy of the MGRM who wisely have opted for a soft but robust approach aimed at attracting the widest possible support for gay rights. I was happy to be one of the supporters who turned up together with my parliamentary colleagues Marie Louise Coleiro, Helena Dalli and Education Minister Louis Galea. There were also representatives from other organisations like Alternattiva Demokratika, Alpha and Moviment Graffiti.

The fact that such a parade was held in Valletta and gay individuals and straight persons turned up for it with heads held high in the main street of Valletta shows that attitudes to homosexuality have improved. But greater tolerance or acceptance of homosexuality does not mean that discrimination and prejudice have been eradicated in our society. "Sexual orientation discrimination in Malta - a report compiled by MGRM on discrimination, harassment and violence against Malta's gay, lesbian and bisexual community" published in 2003 gives a general picture of the situation, prevalent today:

"More than one in ten respondents claimed that they had been subjected to some form of violence due to their sexual orientation. Half of respondents, on the other hand, claimed that they had experienced some sort of harassment. These figures take an even more disturbing form when one considers the amount of respondents that reported repeated incidents of violence and harassment, as well as the fact that in some cases the perpetrators were family members, or worse still, members of the police corps, whose duty it is to protect every citizen from such degrading treatment.

"Discrimination at the work place is rife"; 39.5 per cent say they were harassed at work because they were known or suspected to be lesbian, gay or bisexual. The most common form of harassment reported was jokes or teasing (60 cases out of 200 respondents). Cases of homophobic abuse and aggressive questions numbered 40 and 25 respectively. There were also 20 cases of sexual harassment.

While most gays and lesbians acknowledge that society is more accepting, or at least more tolerant of their sexual orientation, they identify three areas that continue to cause them concern. The first is legal and shows government's reluctance to accept homosexuality entirely. Gays do not feel completely protected by the Employment and Industrial Relations Act. The second is the Catholic condemnation of the sexual acts of gays and lesbians. The third is the lack of protection of gays and lesbians at school.

There are gays who assert that Malta is still failing to follow EU Directive 2000/78/EC that establishes a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation, banning, in Article 1, discrimination on grounds of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation as regards employment and occupation. The Employment and Industrial Relations Act only puts a ban on sexual discrimination and sexual harassment. Sexual orientation discrimination is only covered through a legal notice issued under the Act, and only after incessant campaigning by MGRM during the drafting of the Act and since it has come into force.

The long and winding road

MGRM have not been alone in focusing this inadequacy in the local law existing before the above-mentioned legal notice came into force. Odile Quintin - head of D-G for Employment and Social Affairs for the EU, had said of Malta, in May 2003 " there should be implementation of the anti-discrimination directives of the EU, and age and sexual orientation should be specifically mentioned.

MGRM believes that according to the EU directive, our law should ban discrimination by workers' associations both as regards membership and benefits offered on grounds sexual orientation." In line with the same directive, "there should be a shift in the burden of proof from employee to employer. So that if the victim provides facts from which it can be presumed that discrimination has been taken place at the place of work, it is for the employer to prove that discrimination did not occur."

MGRM would also like inheritance rights to be changed so that a person can inherit from a gay or lesbian partner if the latter dies without a will; access to housing for gays; fiscal benefits, so that gay partners can declare their income jointly as married heterosexuals can; visitation rights in hospital. As it is relatives hostile to a gay partner can prevent the latter from visiting his/her partner in cases where the latter cannot express his will.

MGRM are also campaigning for changes in education. Their report published last year mentions many cases involving bullying at schools. There is a need to help students develop a healthy sexual identity, be it heterosexual or homosexual. This is one important aspect of Personal and Social Education sessions that each secondary school class has at least once a week.

The campaign in favour of the human rights of gays has to continue in the years ahead, not only in Malta but also in the rest of Europe and beyond. Four years ago the European Parliament's Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs called for all member states of the European Union to eliminate any differences in the age of consent between heterosexual and homosexual acts; to legally recognize unmarried domestic partners, regardless of gender; and to extend all the rights of "traditional" couples and families to same-gender couples, as well as to single parent families and unmarried heterosexual couples.

Also four years ago the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) published a comprehensive report on sexual orientation discrimination in Europe. This report documents a global trend of increasing recognition of freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation as a fundamental right but states that 19 European countries still have discriminatory sex laws while three still criminalise all homosexual acts.

Of 41 member states of the Council of Europe, only nine provide protection from workplace discrimination and harassment while many governments themselves discriminate in employment, particularly in the military. Only seven European countries have extended significant legal recognition to same-gender couples.

Things might have improved in the last four years since this report was published but the road that we still have to walk to ensure full human rights for homosexual men and women is still long and winding.

evaristbartolo@hotmail.com