Your leader of December 24 referred to the concept of the traditional family and the threat posed to it, among others, by the recognition of gay marriages in other countries.
The fact that, according to the Eurobarometer survey, only 17 per cent of Maltese were in favour of gay marriages was held up as a redeeming factor of a society that was being harangued for not taking marriage seriously enough. I doubt the romanticised portrayal of the traditional family depicted by the editor ever really existed and its attribution to inspiration by the example of the Holy Family is simply speculation.
I would willingly stand to be corrected should any sociological studies of which I am not aware of prove the contrary. It is certainly sad and worrying that an increasing number of marriages are breaking up, but to imply that this is simply due to a lack of commitment by the individuals concerned is possibly a grave oversimplification as well as an insult to many who have undergone a very often painful separation process.
While the needs of children are paramount, all beings, young and old, have a right to happiness and fulfilment.
On gay marriage, the Malta Gay Rights Movement believes that it is unfair and discriminatory to deny same-sex couples legal access to civil marriage and to all its attendant benefits, rights, privileges and obligations. Allowing same-sex couples to marry would give them access to the legal, social and economic support that already facilitates and strengthens heterosexual marriages, with all the psychological and health benefits associated with that support.
It would also end the state's anti-gay stigma through its ban on marriage rights for same-sex couples. Legal prohibition of marriage rights for same-sex couples conveys society's judgment that committed, intimate relationships with people of the same sex are inherently inferior to heterosexual relationships, and that the participants in a same-sex relationship are inherently less deserving of society's recognition than heterosexual couples.
This process of according disadvantaged status to the members of one group relative to another is the crux of the stigma. By denying same-sex couples the right to marry, and devaluing and delegitimising the relationships that are the very core of a homosexual orientation, the State compounds and perpetuates the stigma historically attached to homosexuality. This stigma affects not only the members of same-sex couples who seek to be married, but all homosexual people, regardless of their relationship status or desire to marry.
The American Psychological Association in its Resolution on Sexual Orientation, Parents, and Children, adopted in 2004, stated: "There is no scientific evidence that parenting effectiveness is related to parental sexual orientation: lesbian and gay parents are as likely as heterosexual parents to provide supportive and healthy environments for their children."
It is the quality of parenting that predicts children's psychological and social adjustment, not the parents' sexual orientation or gender. If their parents are allowed to marry, the children of same-sex couples will benefit from the legal stability and other familial benefits that marriage provides, as well as from elimination of state-sponsored stigmatisation of their families. Access to gay marriage for same-sex partners is in the best interest of the children being raised by these parents.