Justice Parliamentary Secretary Owen Bonnici said Maltese society in general and Parliament in particular owed transgender people an apology for the delay in legislation giving them their dignity in marriage.

The Bill giving them the right to marry was another step in Malta’s legal evolution. It was a small but very important step, just two months into the new legislature, not by coincidence but the fruit of conviction that everyone must enjoy one’s dignity.

The Bill was a practical, effective start in favour of those whose rights had long been downtrodden. It had been one of the speediest Bills to make it through Cabinet with unanimous approval.

It must now be followed by other packets giving dignity to other swathes of Maltese society in other directions.

Dr Bonnici said transgender people had been through a long voyage with delicate surgery, huge expenses and great psychological trauma to own up to their feelings. In this sense, male actors who dressed up as women to make audiences laugh constituted a great injustice: it was not funny!

The Government had a clear mandate to come up with a legislative framework for a legal structure for civil union. The rights being accorded to gays were innate and the Government felt in duty bound to give them this leap in dignity.

There should be no first and second divisions in dignity. He was looking forward to the most historic legislature in the allocation of new rights.

This was a step that Malta had long been waiting for, to cut down on hypocrisy.

Minister Helena Dalli was to be congratulated for having hit the ground running at the start of her tenure.