News 07/07/2002

Greens advocate State recognition for gay couples

The Green Party yesterday announced that it would be including a chapter on gay and lesbian rights in its manifesto, to be approved next October, including a proposal for recognition by the State of the rights and duties of gay and lesbian couples.

The announcement was made at a seminar organised jointly between Alternattiva Demokratika and the Malta Gay Rights Movement.

James Debono of Alternattiva Demokratika said that his party "has always been the most progressive party in these matters and other political parties should follow in the footsteps of AD in this regard."

Jurgen Balzan, party spokesman for civil rights said that the proposals included the recognition of rights and duties of gay and lesbian couples by the state, prohibiting sexually oriented discrimination in the education system and a constitutional amendment prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. Mr Balzan added that greater protection under industrial law for gays and lesbians was required and proposed making it a criminal act to propagate homophobia.

Sandro Mangion, co-ordinator of MGRM spoke about the progress of the movement in its first year and spoke about the contacts that it had managed to establish with ‘credible’ entities in this country, such as Alternattiva Demokratika.

Christian Attard, international secretary of MGRM dwelt on the proposals that the group had made with regards to the industrial relations laws. While expressing satisfaction with the fact that the phrase "sexual orientation" has, at last, been included in Maltese law, Mr Attard said that he was "disappointed with the omission of important aspects of an EU directive that dealt with equality of gays and lesbians at the workplace."

Several speakers in the seminar said that they were worried because a lot of homosexuals in the education system – both teachers as well as students – were the victims of bullying, discrimination, and other forms of harassment. Because of this they were constrained to hide the fact that they were homosexuals.

Others were of the opinion that parents should be taught to be prepared to deal with the possibility that their children might turn out to be homosexual.

"Many people were being subjected to ‘structural violence’ because they had to hide their true sexual orientation to avoid persecution," said Green Party Chairperson Harry Vassallo. Concluding the seminar Dr Vassallo expressed his hope that Alternattiva Demokratika and MGRM would continue to collaborate in the future.