Not one single word has been uttered by the gay community in defence of outgoing PN leader Simon Busuttil who, notwithstanding his departure from the leadership of his party, is taking the flak, internally and externally, to defend the right of same sex marriage. This says a lot about this group of people who have, rightfully, gained so much momentum in this country, comparable to the hunting lobby.

Just four years ago, the gay community held no power of conviction. Joseph Muscat himself, as Prime Minister, was publicly stating that marriage was exclusive to man and woman and that gay couples should settle for civil unions.

He acted so, irrespective of the fact that the labour movement is by far more open to civil liberties. But on his part, Simon Busuttil inherited a conservative party which opposed divorce, let alone civil unions or gay marriage. This newspaper was amongst the first to criticise him for lack of leadership when he settled for an abstention in the civil unions act. That day he and his colleagues had to face the anger and disappointment of the gay movement, which had rallied outside Parliament to pour insult over the PN parliamentary group.

The logical question to ask is: Where are they now? Not one single group or individual associated with the gay community has come out to defend Simon Busuttil, who is currently swimming in rough seas within his party just to secure a vote in favour of gay marriage. As things stand one could easily conclude that the gay movement is being led by a group of selfish individuals whose only concern is to gain what is rightfully theirs but are hardly ready to give anything back to those in society who fought for their agenda.

Each time Joseph Muscat found himself in trouble over the Panama Papers and other scandals that characterised his first term in office, he played the gay card. Maybe he did so because he knows that the core group in the gay community will respond and jump to his rescue just like the thugs from the dockyard did back in Mintoff’s and Mifsud Bonnici’s case. Thankfully physical violence is no more the order of the day but social bullying has morphed into other forms nowadays.  This newspaper defends the right for conservatives to oppose civil liberties even though editorially we took an opposing stand.

If the gay community wants to come out of this victorious but credible it needs to offer its support to Simon Busuttil and those in the Nationalist Party who are defending their cause. Busuttil is going as far as denying a free vote on the matter to make sure that the law, that was maliciously crafted by Joseph Muscat’s legislators, goes through in full force.

This newspaper has always supported the introduction of civil liberties. We were in favour of EU accession on several counts, civil liberties and social equality included. However, this doesn’t give the right to groups within society who have been marginalised for many years, to raise their head above the rest in a historic moment such as this. We salute the Labour movement for the bold approach towards equality but we also laud Simon Busuttil who is leading a conservative party out of the woods to embrace, once and for all, civil liberties as a fact of life. This is a reality the PN cannot continue to ignore or brush under the maduma (tiles) if it cares to remain politically relevant during this century. 

The gay community is not offering any appreciation towards society at large. It needs to reach out to the rest of society who are doing their best to understand their plight. Instead it is basking in Joseph Muscat’s crushing manoeuvres to impose his agenda over parliament with the scope to weaken the Opposition.