Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1495665
10 Unity SUNDAY 26 MARCH 2023 Love and sex Dr Damian Spiteri Department of Social Policy and Social Work THIS feature is being written during a period when several important policy and legislative changes are taking place, cer- tainly far too many to squeeze into a few lines. The three points that are discussed here reflect those given prominence in re- cent studies published by the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality. 1 The first point relates to dis- crimination in the context of sexuality. A key marker among the measures that are being in- troduced came about in 2014, when Malta became the first country in the world to include gender identity as grounds of protection. At that point, its Constitution was amended to include sexual orientation and gender identity as grounds for discrimination. The proposed Malta's Human Rights and Equality Commission Bill (2019) and the Equality Bill (2019) lay down that any person who en- ables (or, in any way, makes it possible) for such discrimination to take place would also have committed such discrimination. This is aligned to Chapter IV of the Constitution of Malta which lays down that "every person in Malta is entitled to the funda- mental rights and freedoms of the individual, that is to say, the right, whatever his race, place of origin, political opinions, colour, creed or sex… [provided that this] does not prejudice the rights and free- doms of others or the public inter- est". The impli- cations of this are that university students who are open about being gay or les- bian can do so with their mind relatively at rest. This contrasts with past times when people were more reluctant to disclose their sexuality for reasons of fear of retribution of some form. The second point relates to the positioning of gay or lesbian people in wider society, in terms of how the legislation made it possible for same-sex couples to have the same rights as hetero- sexual couples do. In April 2014, Parliament approved the Civ- il Unions Act which meant all rights under the Marriage Act applied to civil partners (with the sole exclusion of religious weddings). Foreign same-sex registered partners were recog- nized as civil partners, and adop- tions by civil-union partners were also regulated the same way as those by spouses. The enactment of the Chapter 530 of the Laws of Malta, Civil Unions Act, 2014 grants civil unions the same rights, responsibilities, and obligations as marriage, includ- ing the right of joint adoption. The third point relates to con- cern for non-Maltese European Union (EU) nationals in Mal- ta. This point is particularly relevant in a university con- text where some of the stu- dents are not Maltese na- tionals and quite a number come from different parts of the EU. Malta's Human Rights framework includes the Char- ter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union which is di- rected at promoting respect for the upholding of human rights and complements the European Convention on Human Rights (EHCR). The message that is being brought across is that the EU recognises that persons who identify as LGBTIQ+ in the EU should have the freedom to live and publicly be themselves with- out living in fear. This implies that the concern for non-Mal- tese nationals from EU countries (and possibly also from else- where) may be justified, or, in some cases, can be seen readily as clearly justified. As a further note, the LGBTIQ Equality Strategy and Action Plan 2018-2022 acknowledges the need to make visible Malta's welcome towards LGBTIQ tour- ists in international publicity campaigns and in domestic ser- vices catering for tourists; and it suggests the need to launch a campaign for LGBTIQ-wel- coming businesses to externalise their inclusion through #Wel- come commitments and stickers and to support initiatives that p r o v i d e v i s i b i l i t y to the LG- BTIQ com- munity's con- tribution to Malta over the years. The three points above can be ex- panded up- on further, by referring to the works of Foucault. They all refer to transitions in thinking and acting, be they on a personal level, on a relation- ships level, or on a societal and EU level. In Foucault's terms, 'sexuality' is not an empir- ical reality manifest what people do and the identities they adopt, but rather positioned alongside 'health', 'sanity', and 'criminality' and thereby producing governa- ble subjects through the deploy- ment of discourses. Putting this in other words, following Foucault, the transi- tion from the use of such terms as sodomites to that of people with gay and lesbian identities is not simply a matter of using new labels to describe a real- ity, but rather, a matter that the changed labels point to a changed reality. 2 Applying Fou- cault's reasoning further, however, if the recent change in legislation reflects changes in un- derlying thinking, what was it that made all these changes possi- ble? For instance, how did same- sex marriages 'earn' their place in l e g i s - l a t i o n (and in wider so- ciety) in a Maltese context? After all same-sex marriage was something which, in pre- vious years, was taboo. Was the underlying change in outlook the result of the tireless and relentless effort of the NGOs in Malta; was it the work and public appearances of high profile politicians; was it the result of Malta's accession to the EU which im- plied that Malta had to toe the line in relation to at least some of its policies; was it the wide- spread access and use of the internet and social media; was it a wider ap- preciation of the needs and rights of people identifying as gay or les- bian through schools and educa- tion channels; was it something that arose as a result of the lib- eralisation of the economy; or was it simply a marker of polit- ical expediency, and therefore a vote-catching exercise that somehow worked out for both the politicians and for people identifying as gay or lesbian (or people who otherwise formed part of the LGBTIQ+ commu- nity)? None of these questions deserve a simple answer. Rather, each has the potential to pro- mote much reflection and dis- cussion. References 1. National Commission for the Promotion of Equality. (n.d.). Research published by the NCPE. https://ncpe.gov.mt/ en/Pages/Our_Publications_ and_Resources/Research_pub- lished_by_NCPE.aspx 2. Foucault, M. (1978). The history of sexuality. Volume I: The will to knowledge. Penguin Books Being gay or lesbian and out as a university student: the effect of recent policy and legislative changes