I’m always fascinated, if not ever so slightly concerned, by the obvious bipolarism and ingrained inconsistency that seem to dominate the Maltese psyche.

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We love our dogs and cats yet we voted, via referendum no less, to keep taking potshots at birds for fun; our church attendance is at an all-time low but this hasn’t deterred a huge chunk of the population from soaking themselves in beer in the name of our local saint for a week a year, and despite the fact that on paper we are one of the most advanced countries in the world when it comes to LGBTQ+ legislation, according to MGRM (Malta LGBTIQ Rights Movement) 46.8 per cent of LGBTQ+ students said that they received derogatory comments often or frequently. A staggering 34 per cent felt so unsafe at school that they missed at least one full day.

Of course, while statistics are vital when it comes to proving and supporting your arguments, you don’t need to be a neurosurgeon to realise what LGBTQ+ people experience in their everyday lives.

It is unacceptable that people be made to feel lesser for who they love

Just a few months ago, I was walking down a road in Gżira minding my own business when I encountered two teenage boys walking down the street hand in hand.

I think I must have smiled to myself in happiness at the fact that people were finally feeling like they could do something as basic as that without being judged. Less than three seconds later, this young girl comes out of nowhere and starts yelling profanities at them. They looked so scared and uncomfortable that I became incandescent with rage and intervened.

I told her to take her needless hate elsewhere in very colourful terms and apologised to them because I did not want them to feel worse than they probably already did. It was only then that the slightly taller one said: “Thank you for what you did but you didn’t have to, we are used to it.” How can a reaction like that not break your heart?

In a culture and society that has fixed, oftentimes toxic views of what it means to be a man or a woman and the roles we are supposedly meant to play, daring to try to break out of what some may consider to be the norm is still heavily frowned upon and condemned. I am so used to hearing chants of he or she deserved it for some of the most heinous, unspeakable crimes that I very often send small prayers of thanks into the universe that we aren’t under Sharia law and stonings are illegal, because I’m sure that there would be queues as long as the one for the Lidl barbecue sets to cast the first stone.

It is unacceptable that people be made to feel lesser for who they love. I mean to be completely honest: the fact that I myself am still attracted to men is proof enough that these are not things you choose. We’ve said that we are the so-called best in Europe when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights, so maybe it’s time we all started acting like it.