As a nation that has made great strides in developing LGBTIQ rights and protections, the open-mindedness of such policies have not necessarily trickled down easily in other areas of Maltese life. 

While adopting an open-ended attitude of tolerance towards the LGBTIQ community, understanding and normalising the full spectrum of sexuality and gender identity is a goal many institutions have a long way to go before attaining. 

"I'm fed up of the silence,@ says Ms Cassar Fiott.

Particularly when it comes to gender identity, public discourse seems to stall at binary gender identities, leaving those who identify in the liminal spaces of that binary often struggling to be heard and have their needs recognised. 

Isabelle Cassar Fiott recognised that she was not cisgender around five years ago, but it was not until she found the term genderfluid that a tangible definition of what she was feeling clicked into place. 

“Genderfluidity to me means that I am not at a fixed point on the gender spectrum. I’m not a girl or a boy, I tend to flow in between the two. Sometimes I feel more male than female, sometimes I feel more female than male and sometimes I feel completely androgynous.”

A fresh graduate from the UWC College in India, Cassar Fiott took a gap year to work with NGOs and voluntary organisations before enrolling at University. Her activism has led her to become more open about her genderfluidity and hopes to make the conversation about trans and non-binary identities more accessible. 

“I think it’s time to speak up about this because I’m a bit fed up of the silence,” she says. “I didn’t have anybody to talk to about it, I didn’t have anybody to model myself after because I didn’t know anyone else who fell under this umbrella of genderfluidity or non-binary.”

Having found no one to turn to when she began questioning her gender identity, Cassar Fiott turned to other allies in the queer community for support, but found that even within that wider community, non-binary gender identities are not really talked about. 

“I decided I wanted to talk about this so that in the very least if someone else was in the same position and decided that they wanted to talk about this but had nobody to talk to, maybe they could come to talk to me about it,” she says with a smile. 

“Our world is split into binary thinking that denotes you as female or male, we stick ourselves to gender norms and people can’t get their heads around the fact that gender is also fluid, as is sexuality. I think people need to be a little less fixated with fitting everything neatly into little boxes and be more open to exploration,” Cassar Fiott says. 

People can’t get their heads around the fact that gender is also fluid, as is sexuality

“The idea of gender norms and the idea of what is male and what is female changes from person to person, from culture to culture, from country to country, so there are no hard and fast rules. Just because you are born female for example, doesn’t mean you have to abide by the ‘rules’ of what is female.”

Cassar Fiott has taken her activism firmly by the reigns and has been working on introducing LGBTIQ awareness education in schools, as well as flagging legal and policy issues in relation to trans and non-binary people.

 “We want little kids to grow up aware of different sexualities and gender identities because kids don’t automatically marginalise someone who is different to them,” she says. 

“There’s no hate built into them at a young age, so if we teach kids to love their friends for who they are, they’ll grow up knowing that it doesn’t really matter who you are or who you express yourself as, because you’re still a person and you still need to be treated with respect.” 

Cassar Fiott strongly believes in and hopes to  advocate for LGBTIQ inclusive sex education in schools as well as for the curriculum of the Personal, Social and Career Development (PSCD) to cover queer and gender non-conforming teens more comprehensively. 

The young activist also notes that loopholes and shortcomings of the Gender Identity Act are negatively affecting non-binary and genderqueer people. 

 Cassar Fiott will be addressing all these topics and more during a talk about her experiences as a genderfluid person living in Malta. From safety concerns, to the particular hang ups of obtaining correct documentation as a non-binary person, she hopes her experiences will serve as a sounding board for others who are still struggling with their identities. 

“Thinking about the backlash is scary,” Cassar Fiott says, “but you surround yourself with people who love you and you keep going.”

“I don’t want to be a hypocrite because I’m a very politically active person and I’m not one to keep my opinions to myself and I try to make my opinions heard. So if I believe in all this, that we shouldn’t be afraid to express who we are, then why should I be afraid to express who I am? I put myself forward so other people can also eventually put themselves forward.”

Experience of Genderfluidity and the Non-binary is being held tomorrow at Monaliza Lounge, Valletta. Entrance is free, however donations to Arc will be appreciated.