Civil rights denied to homosexuals

Jacqueline Calleja (Marriage In Do Minore, August 17, and Catechism And Homosexuality, August 25) is so deeply engrossed in her tremolo on the fundamentalist Catholic view of marriage primarily for procreation, that she seems oblivious to the fact that civil marriage (as distinct from Catholic marriage) grants the spouses many civil rights as individuals that are so far denied to homosexual partners in Malta.

These are the "freedoms" referred to by Kenneth Zammit Tabona (August 21), "freedoms that are enjoyed by our European counterparts".

For the benefit of Ms Calleja and others who have the privilege of taking their civil rights for granted, here is a non-exhaustive list: The right to joint treatment for income-related benefits and joint state pension benefits; eligibility for partner benefits in employment and service provision; recognition of partners for immigration purposes; the right to fair arrangements for property division and residence in cases of separation; the right to register the death of a partner and organise the funeral; eligibility for bereavement benefits; the right to claim a survivor pension and compensation for fatal accidents or criminal injuries; recognition under inheritance and intestacy rules; tenancy succession rights.

These individual civil rights do not proceed from anything contained in the Bible or in the Catechism of the Catholic Church; nor do they require individuals to be able to conceive children with their partner.

They accrue to the spouses as a direct consequence of the long-term emotional and financial commitment towards each other that they enter into upon contracting marriage, a commitment that generally underlies long-term same-sex relationships as well.

It is somewhat paradoxical that the current Administration is so keen on embracing all that is European but has not made the slightest move towards recognising same-sex relationships. In 16 out of 27 EU member states (and 13 out of the 15 states we aspired to join prior to our EU accession), there is some form of recognition of same-sex relationships, ranging from unregistered cohabitation provisions in Austria, Hungary and Portugal, to registered partnerships granting varying degrees of rights in the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Sweden and the UK, to same-sex marriage in Belgium, The Netherlands and Spain.

The issue is currently being debated in Italy. Apart from Greece and Cyprus, Malta remains the only European country outside the Eastern bloc where the issue has not been given attention at parliamentary level.

I wonder whether this is because our political class is made up of people of the same mindset as Ms Calleja or because our politicians assume that the Maltese population is predominantly of that mindset. If the latter is the case, the recent barrage of replies to Ms Calleja's letters - many of which were written by heterosexuals - should urge them to reconsider. If the former is the case, then it explains why the separation of Church and state remains an alien concept in this country and some people are clearly unable to draw a distinction between Catholic marriage and civil marriage.