St Julian’s mayor Karl Gouder and Attard Councillor Alex Mangion have both condemned gay conversion therapy but stopped short of providing an opinion on what the stance of Nationalist party, which they form part of, should be.
The government proposed a Bill which seeks to outlaw conversion therapy, a practice which aims to change, repress or alter a person’s sexual identity, gender expression or gender identity. This often happens to change homosexual persons into heterosexual ones.
Mr Gouder was one of the first openly-gay MPs while Mr Mangion was the first transgender person to contest Local Council elections and was successfully elected to the PN ticket as an Attard Councillor.
Speaking with The Malta Independent Mr Gouder said:
“As you can imagine I am totally against gay conversion therapy. Being gay is neither an illness nor a belief, so therefore conversion therapy should not even feature.”
Pressed as to what he thinks the PN’s position should be, Mr Gouder repeatedly said that he is confident the party will be revealing its position in the coming days. Although Mr Gouder made his personal beliefs clear, he stopped short of commenting as to whether he thinks his party should express support to banning a harmful and traumatic practice.
Mr Mangion provided this newsroom with exactly the same comment:
“I am totally against gay conversion therapy. As you know, being gay is neither a belief nor an illness, which means that no conversion should ever feature.”
He also added that “being LGBT is not a life choice, it is something you have to accept about you in a society that makes you feel uneasy about it and some would rather die than be who they are! Yes, LGBT deaths are on the rise.”
LGBTQI issues have been brought to the forefront in Western culture, with an increasing number of politicians, celebrities and well-known individuals speaking out more openly then ever-before.
PN spokesperson for citizen’s rights, equality and social dialogue Clyde Puli said that the party has never thought that homosexuality should be viewed as an illness.
Speaking with this newsroom on what the party’s position for the bill should be, Mr Puli carefully said that “the details of the bill will be discussed in the parliamentary group on Wednesday,” adding that the party was in favour of the Gender Identity Bill passed in 2014, allowing citizens to legally change their gender without undergoing gender reassignment surgery.
Pressed on what the strategy for this issue will be, he said that “there is no strategy here, we will discuss the issue in the parliamentary group as we do with all other laws, this is standard procedure.”
Turning to possible issues of division within the party, Mr Puli was asked about whether the mix of young liberal politicians and older, more conservative ones will be an issue, he said that the party will act unanimously as it did with the Gender Identity Bill.
The PN has in the past been heavily criticised for dragging its feet and abstaining on the Civil Union Act, which many took as a sign that the party is not really in support of the LGBTQI community. Due to this, many individuals have taken to Facebook to question what the position of the PN is on the conversion therapy issue.
Many have also questions why the party failed to respond more quickly – especially in light of the uproar over the weekend between what the Church’s position is, and the ensuing responses by the government and various NGOs.