New NGO to reach out to Maltese transgender community

Gender Liberation sets out to inform and empower the gender variant community in Malta through advocacy that puts into question established gender norms

22 February 2015, 8:34am
by Teodor Reljic

1 min read

Gender Liberation, from left: Daniela Azzopardi Bonanno, Mario Gerada, George Douglas Saliba, Alex Mangion, Pyt Farrugia and Gabrielle Borg Cassar. Photo by Ray Attard

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A new NGO has been set up to reach out, inform and empower gender diverse communities in Malta and to explore and question established categories of gender and sexuality.

Gender Liberation was formed under the auspices of President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society earlier this year.

“The president asked us what more could be done to raise awareness about people on the transgender continuum in Malta, and we suggested that setting up the NGO would be the right step forward,” the NGO’s spokesman Alex Mangion said. “However, we wanted to ensure that it’s not just limited to transgender people, but also everyone who identifies themselves within the gender variant continuum.”

The organisation also plans to “pass on the message that being part of the ‘mainstream’ of society is not an excuse to impose a superiority complex over others, which includes assuming that people on the gender variant continuum need to seek psychological help.

“The only reason I imagine a transgender person would want to seek psychological help in relation to their gender identity, would be as a result of depression caused by the patriarchal structures which marginalise them,” the NGO’s Outreach and Advocacy Officer Pyt Farrugia explained.

Read the full feature story in today’s edition of MaltaToday

Teodor Reljić was born in Belgrade, Serbia and raised in Malta. He writes fiction across ...