New strategy to focus on ‘mainstreaming’ of LGBTIQ rights within society launched

Albert Galea Friday, 14 September 2018, 13:56 Last update: about 7 years ago

A new strategy focused on LGBTIQ rights was launched by the Ministry for European Affairs and Equality on Friday.

The LGBTIQ Equality Strategy & Action Plan will run till 2022 and is the second of its kind, after the first focused on changing and modernising legislation related to LGBTIQ rights.

With Malta now in first place for these rights in the legislative sense, Minister for European Affairs and Equality Helena Dalli said that the next step was to focus on the social realities that LGBTIQ people face. Dalli said that she wanted a society where anyone can live their lives to their full potential irrelevant of their sexual orientation.

Dalli described the strategy as the 'mainstreaming' of LGBTIQ rights into society. The term 'mainstreaming' is here defined as seeing that in any part of society, a person doesn't need to think twice about whether they're going to be welcomed or not due to their sexual orientation.

Indeed a study published by Eurobarometer three years ago already gave the indication that there had been a large jump forward in the positive perception that Maltese society holds towards those falling into the LGBTIQ bracket. The latest Eurobarometer study on this subject is expected to be published in October and will give a much clearer indication of the situation today.

Gabi Calleja will be the person in charge of the implementation of this strategy, and she said that the strategy will focus on seeing how the laws that have already been implemented have the full desired impact on society.

Calleja explained that the measures within this strategy touch upon various elements of life, such as the workplace, education sector, health and sports. The strategy also contains measures to help other countries across the world arrive at the stage Malta was at in terms of these LGBTIQ rights.

She concluded that the biggest challenge that they had faced, and expect to face, is not transphobia or homophobia; it's the normalisation of these rights within society. The strategy and action plan launched on Friday, Calleja said, aims to overcome this challenge.