Love is Love is the theme of this year’s Pride Week being held between 17 and 23 June.
This year, Malta marks the 40th anniversary of the country’s decriminalisation of sodomy, and it is moving ever closer towards the enactment of a Civil Union Bill “that will hopefully grant meaningful recognition and rights to same-sex couples”, according to the MGRM.
The movement also notes: “It is also the 10th anniversary of the Pride March, which was first held in Malta in 2004.”
This year’s march will be held on 22 June at 11am in Valletta, beginning in front of the law courts at 10.30am.
The MGRM said that representatives of all political parties, including some Cabinet members, have confirmed their participation. The Ministry for Social Dialogue, Consumer Affairs and Civil Liberties was supporting the Pride March event, while artists Chiara, Glen Vella and Miriam Christine Borg will be performing, following the March.
The week’s events will also include an LGBT festival, the launch of an It Gets Better video, produced by the US Embassy with the participation of local activists, and the annual WomenSpace event.
Monaliza Lounge in Valletta will also be organising a number of parallel events throughout the week.
MGRM also noted that a report recently released by the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) sheds light on the social and human rights situation of LGBT people in all EU countries, including Malta.
According to the MGRM: “Clearly, despite increased awareness, contempt, derision and discrimination continue to be an everyday part of the lives of LGBT people in family life, employment, education and in the provision of goods and services, all because of who we love.”
Echoing UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, MGRM said that, for generations, LGBT people have been made to feel anything but free and equal. “For far too long, their suffering has met with silence in the halls of power.”
The movement explained that Love is Love will be a celebration of “our identities and relationships and our claim to the promise, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of a world in which all persons, irrespective of their sexual orientation or gender identity, enjoy the protection and recognition they deserve”.
Visit the MGRM website at www.maltagayrights.org or its Facebook page for more information on Pride Week.