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James Debono
The state-owned Medite-rranean Conference Centre turned down an application for the organisation of a beauty contest for transsexual participants.
Contacted by MaltaToday to explain why this application was turned down MCC chairman Dr Peter Fenech insisted that he does not divulge information on any of his clients to the press. Asked whether the sexual orientation of the participants had anything to do with this decision, Dr Fenech refused to comment.
The Coordinator of the Malta Gay Rights Movement Sandro Mangion told MaltaToday the management of the Mediterranean Conference Centre is duty bound to state why it has turned down this application.
“As a public concern MCC cannot deal with proposals in an arbitrary manner. Neither can it fail to be transparent in the way it functions, for instance by keeping the criteria it applies to determine whether to accept or refuse proposals secret,” added Sandro Mangion.
Organisers Sue Rossi and clothes designer Ray Ashley submitted the application way back in November 2004. According to the organisers MCC rejected their application in a matter of hours and has since then refused to explain what led to its decision.
Both the organisers and MGRM have asked MCC chairman Dr Peter Fenech to state the criteria that led MCC to prevent the show from taking place but his reply all along has been that he is not obliged to provide his clients with explanations as to why he approves or rejects applications.
Other mainstream beauty contests like Miss Maltese Islands have been held in the past in the MCC.
The MGRM spokesperson told MaltaToday that “transsexual individuals already suffer discrimination in mainstream beauty contests since they are usually shunned by heterosexual female contestants. Events like these provide a golden opportunity for this category of the population to bring out its talents and share them with the public.”
Transsexuals are individuals who establish a permanent identity with the opposite gender to that assigned to them at birth. Some of them choose to undergo gender reassignment surgery.
Meanwhile, the organisers have wasted no time and preparations for the show in another venue are already underway. In fact, this beauty contest will now be held on Saturday, 20 August 2005 at the Ramla Bay Garden, which is scheduled to open its doors
shortly.
jdebono@newsworksltd.com
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