Commission turns down pro-lifers’ US-inspired disabled people’s prom invite

The disability commission has turned down an invitation for an event hosted by pro-life groups, saying the party does little to promote disability rights.

The Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD) said it was invited to participate in an event titled Time to Shine Malta, which is being organized by Tim Tebow Foundation, LifeNetwork Foundation Malta and the St Julian's Parish, together with a number of commercial entities, as well as the Maltese Association of the Order of Malta.

The event is a “window dressing exercise” according to the commission, with no active participation of disabled people’s organizations.

“The Commission is of the opinion that this event is a window-dressing exercise in making fellow citizens feel 'special for a night' when our collective effort should be aimed at making them feel included in society for a lifetime,” it said.

In both invitation and promotional material, persons with disability are referred to as "persons with special needs".

“Nowhere does the invitation and promotional material indicate that the event will promote disability rights,” the commission said.

The CRPD said that as the independent mechanism trusted by law it “cannot possibly support this event.”

The Tim Tebow Foundation is a Christian charity fronted by athlete Tim Tebow, whose signature Night to Shine is a worldwide prom for people with special needs. The organisation funds surgeries to children of the Philippines through the Tebow CURE Hospital.

Tebow is a professional football and baseball player who is a staunch pro-life activist. He joined the annual March for Life in January 2021, an annual American pro-life demonstration held each January on the National Mall since the passage of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that guarantees a woman’s right to an abortion.

The Tim Tebow Foundation also funds anti-human trafficking initiatives – Tebow personally supported the erection of the ‘Trump’ wall on the US-Mexico border. In 2020, he appeared with Ivanka Trump and the American Attorney General Bill Barr to announce over $100 million in federal government funds to target human trafficking.