Queer Mediterranean Memories: Penetrating the secret history and silence of gay and lesbian disguise in the Maltese archipelago

By Joseph Carmel Chetcuti

In Malta, Chetcuti appeared on Pjazza Tlieta (1994), a popular television program. That day, he became the first professional Maltese homosexual to come out in the Maltese media. 1997 saw Chetcuti's

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lygon Street Legal Services
• Release date: Aug 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9780648225317

Joseph Carmel Chetcuti

JOSEPH CARMEL CHETCUTI was admitted, as Barrister and Solicitor, by the Supreme Court of Victoria on 8 November 1993, and, as solicitor, by the High Court of Australia on 9 September 1994. He has practised in the areas of criminal, family, immigration, and same-sex law. Chetcuti came out in Sydney, Australia, in late 1972 - most likely, the first Maltese-Australian to do so - at a meeting of Cross+Section, a subgroup of the Campaign Against Moral Persecution, Australia's first political homosexual lobby group. He attended his first gay-rights demonstration, in Sydney, in September 1973. His contributions have appeared in, amongst others, Edge City on Two Different Plans (1983) and Being Different (1986), respectively Australia's first gay poetry anthology and first gay autobiographical writings.

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QUEER MEDITERRANEAN MEMORIES

penetrating the secret history and silence of gay and lesbian disguise in the Maltese archipelago

Publisher: Lygon Street Legal Services

585 Lygon Street

Princes Hill VIC 3054

[e-mail]

mardigras78ers.com.au

ABN: 40 447 540 843

First published: 2009.

Minuteman Press, 27-31 Keele Street, Collingwood, Victoria 3066.

ISBN 978-0-646-51279-2

E-Book: 2023

Celebrating EuroPride 2023 (Malta)

ISBN 978-0-6482253-1-7

The photograph on the front cover of the book shows Melchiore Gafà’s wooden, gilded statue of St Paul in the Collegiate Church of St Paul’s Shipwreck (Valletta). The saint is mounted on a pedestal and is guarded by four angels. According to Bishop Emeritus John Shelby Spong, the data indicating that St Paul was homosexual is very substantial.

Photographs on the front and back covers of the book: © Joseph Carmel Chetcuti.

All other photographs are the property of Joseph Carmel Chetcuti.

Design: © Joseph Carmel Chetcuti.

Copyright: © Joseph Carmel Chetcuti.

This book is copyrighted. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted by law, no part (including photographs) may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be addressed to Joseph Carmel Chetcuti.

Images copyright: The author has only been able to trace the photographers as credited in the book. If you have information that would assist him in identifying the names of any of the uncredited photographers, please contact the author at [e-mail].

Readers who identify inaccuracies in the book or have any additional information and/or documents, including photographs, on all matters relating to homosexuality in Malta are strongly urged to contact the author.

AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO THE READER

The material in this book is of the nature of general comment only. The book is not intended to provide advice, including legal advice, on any particular matter. Readers should not act based on any material contained in this book. The author, publisher and distributor expressly disclaim any liability to any person with respect to any action taken or not taken in reliance on the material contained in this book.

Names and dates provided in this book are accurate to the best of the author’s knowledge. Suggestions for corrections are most welcome.

This book mentions several persons by name.

Where the author believes or speculates that a person is of a particular sexual orientation, the author states so explicitly and unambiguously. Unless otherwise expressly stated, the reader should not assume persons named in the book to be of any specific sexual orientation. Where meeting places are named, the reader is asked not to assume or infer anything about the sexual orientation or attitudes of the management and staff of these venues.

Any reader who assumes or infers that a person is of a particular sexual orientation merely because this book mentions that person by name or for any other reason – be it his or her interaction or association with gay men and lesbians or attendance at venues believed to be frequented by gay men and lesbians – does so without any urging by the author.

Where a reader unfairly assumes or infers a particular sexual orientation, that assumption or inference may well be proof of that reader’s prejudice.

Readers are respectfully reminded that gay men and lesbians go about their daily business of living within mainstream society. Invariably, we interact and make friends with persons who are not homosexual. This book is testimony to such interaction and friendships.

Let me proclaim loud and clear:

there is no earthly reason why a homosexual (male or female)

of political merit

should not have the makings of a good Maltese judge,

statesman or bureaucrat ...

To those who hanker after some Maltese spice

in this Mediterranean flavour,

let me confess here and now:

throughout more than half a century of public life

I know of no public figure

with whom I have been in close contact,

myself included,

who would have passed the test of conformity

with the sexual conventions

now so wildly promulgated with so much gibberish hypocrisy.

Dom Mintoff

Publish and be damned

The Malta Independent

13 March 1994, 20-21.

CONTENTS

ABBREVIATIONS

EXCERPT

INTRODUCTION

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

1. L AWS OF M ALTA

2. D ECRIMINALIZATION OF ‘H OMOSEXUALITY ’ IN M ALTA

3. A J OYLESS O VERREACTION TO D ECRIMINALIZATION : R ETORT OF THE R OMAN C ATHOLIC B ISHOPS

4. P OINTS OF E NTRY : F ROM P UBLIC P LACES TO P RIVATE P ARTIES

5. T WO G UTS AND A B RITISH F LEET : V ALLETTA ’ S S TRAIT S TREET AND F LORIANA ’ S B ALZUNETTA

6. C ARNIVAL : S ELF -M OCKERY OR E MPOWERMENT ?

7. F ROM THE N EIGHBOURHOOD B AR TO THE G AY B AR

8. A T ASTE FOR B EASTLY D ESIRES

9. M ALTESE G AY S PEECH

10. H OMOSEXUALIZING M ALTESE L ITERATURE

11. L IKE T HERE IS NO T OMORROW !

LOOKING AHEAD

POSTSCRIPT

FOOTNOTES

ABBREVIATIONS

EXCERPT

The only church that isn’t debating it (homosexuality) is the Roman Catholic. The Roman Catholic Church never debates any issue publicly but you may be sure it’s being debated privately because the Roman Catholic tradition is compromised constantly by the fact that [it has] a significant number of gay clergy and periodically one of them becomes a front-page story in the newspapers. They’ve come to the point they cannot deny their duplicity in this issue. I think the Church needs to come clean and be honest.

I also think we need to recognize that historically the presence of gay people in the life of the Church brought qualities to the Church’s life and ministry that we would not have had otherwise. We wouldn’t allow women to function in the life of the Church and so we allowed feminized men to bring some of the values and qualities that women might otherwise have brought to the priesthood ...

I think St Paul was a gay man. I think the data that would indicate that [he was] is very substantial. Paul never married. Paul had a difficult time relating to women. Women have a hard time - even today - reading Paul because he comes across as almost misogynist and, by that, I do not mean to suggest that gay people are misogynists ... Paul talks about this war that goes on in his body. His mind follows one law. His body follows another. He talks about sin dwelling in his members and his mind cannot control his appendage to the body. My mind is perfectly capable of controlling my arms, my legs, my eyes, my ears, my nose, my mouth. I can stop or shut any of those appendages. There’s only one appendage that is not controlled by my mind ...

Paul is giving evidence that his mind cannot control his sexual appetite. I think he also talks about himself in very derogatory terms which are quite significant in the life of a non-accepting gay person ... Paul as a Jew would certainly be aware of the restrictions in the Torah ... and Paul would say things like: the wretched man that I am. Who would deliver me from the body of death? Then Paul has this conversion experience, no matter what he was or what he has done, even condemned by the Torah and condemned by the society in which he lived, he found himself accepted and loved by God.

That was the primary message of the Christ to him ... and he says: Now nothing can separate me from the love of God, not even my nakedness, he says, which I find a very interesting choice of words. I read that to mean not even the secrets of my body if they were fully revealed can separate me from the love of God... It is a speculation I am eager to do for one reason. I think it would be a remarkable thing if we could come to the realisation that the primary Christian disciple who gave the Christian church its concept of the grace of God, a grace that would love you just as you are, was a deeply repressed self-hating gay man who had been taught who he was was evil and who was not able to come to any degree of self-acceptance until he ran into the grace of God.

JOHN SHELBY SPONG

EMERITUS EPISCOPALIAN BISHOP OF NEWARK, JERSEY (USA)

Interviewed 23 September 1997

St Stephen’s Church

Richmond, Victoria

INTRODUCTION

One of the rallying cries of the early gay movement was ‘We are everywhere!’ This was perhaps truer than we thought. As this wonderful book shows, queerness is not the preserve of big, rich, urbanised nations. The Malta it reveals to us here has as rich a queer history and culture as many a larger society. The book uncovers experiences encompassing St Paul of Tarsus, British sailors, and a gay and lesbian life not all that different to that that we know here in Australia.

Chetcuti remarks at one point that this book is not a history of queer Malta. He is right - it is, in fact, very much more than that. The author is certainly a historian, and a very good one, but he is also a polemicist, anthropologist, tour guide, lawyer, theologian, agitator, journalist, chronicler, encyclopaedist, literary critic and more … The result is a work of scholarship that draws upon archival and literary sources and upon interviews with both ordinary members of the archipelago’s queer community (most of whom are anything but ordinary) and with eminent social and political figures. But it is also a lively account of a small but fascinating world - there is gossip and hints and suggestions and allegations here, as there must be in every good community history.

And what a cast of characters we are introduced to! It seems as though everybody who has ever travelled around the Mediterranean world has found themselves on the islands. From St Paul of Tarsus to Caravaggio, from Byron to Lord Baden-Powell, Disraeli and Mountbatten and a host of others! And that’s just the queer ones. We say ‘queer’ here advisedly. Some of these people more or less certainly preferred the company of men; about others, we have only hints and suspicions. But they are all grist to the mill. And this material reminds us that few places in the world are entirely islands unto themselves - even islands aren’t cut off from the world. People have always come to Malta, visitors after a few weeks of pleasure; migrants looking to settle, to live and to work. Others came as agents of empire - the Knights of Malta for the Holy Roman Emperor, British governors and sailors - hordes and hordes of British sailors, for whom an entire precinct was established by enterprising businesspeople. More recently, of course, global communications have brought the world virtually as well as really to Malta and the Maltese. And the country’s accession to the European Union has brought with it a host of policy debates.

Given this history and this present, it is not surprising that Malta will look remarkably familiar to many readers. The old gay scene with its beats and bars and drag would be recognisable to camp women and men in London or New York or Melbourne. The new gay world with its activists and agitators, its pride marches and websites is anywhere you care to name, writ small.

But there are differences too. Malta’s camp weddings are not at all like those that we might think of. All camp and gay communities have their own argot, their own slang, their own particular use of code and subtext. Mata is no exception. But only some of it is British; much of it is in the Maltese tongue. From ‘friend of Dorothy’ and ‘butch’ we are ushered swiftly to ‘ikkampjata’ and ‘mara’ and ‘mara li tidher’ and ‘armat’. The themes will be familiar. Queer men everywhere are obsessed with looks and genitalia and hanging around in public places. At a somewhat higher plane, there is a rich literature that we are introduced to. Homosexuality is presented on the page, as Chetcuti says, sometimes ‘head on’, other times ‘discreetly, tactfully, gingerly, diplomatically’. But it appears - and that will be surprising and cheering news to many. In novels and poems, histories and plays and scholarly work, homosexuality is here as it is everywhere. Among the locals, we are introduced to Cookie and Bobbie and Charlie the Golliwog and Minku. There are saints and sinners and ordinary mortals galore. We listen as they talk about their lives and loves (and rivalries!); as they discuss their past, or refuse to do so.

There is inevitably a level of speculation here. This is always the case with queer history. Most people leave few traces of their lives behind; queer people less so than others perhaps. Men, in particular, lived under the shadow of the jail. Women and men could find themselves vilified, victimised, ostracised if their true selves were to become known. Their families and neighbours and workmates often preferred not to know, and to destroy the evidence if it ever came out. As Chetcuti reports, on a number of occasions even the dead have found themselves aggrieved and offended by such suggestions. But there is more to it than this – when we say ‘queer’ – queer people, queer culture, queer worlds – we are using a blanket term that covers a multitude of different things. If we are discussing Charlie the Golliwog and St Paul in the same volume we are necessarily running different experiences together. This is not wrong, just tricky, as Chetcuti does it very well.

This is a book of passion and scholarship. It is full of important stories (and wonderful photos) that will educate and entertain. It brings to the queer world’s stage a small but important actor.

GRAHAM WILLETT

AUSTRALIAN CENTRE

THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

PREFACE

In the early 1990s, I toyed with the idea of writing about the hostility, harassment and neglect of gay men and lesbians in the Maltese archipelago. My long-term goal was to goad Maltese gay men and lesbians into becoming more open about their sexuality and to help bring Malta’s fledgling gay and lesbian community out of the catacombs. I yearned for the opportunity to break the stifling blanket of silence surrounding homosexuality and to tell the public at large that Maltese gay men and lesbians are here, there and everywhere.

Work on this book started during my vacation in Malta in late 1993 and early 1994. Initially, my plans for the book were quite modest as I had planned to complete it by 1996. My intervention on 15 February 1994 on Pjazza Tlieta, a popular Maltese television programme, put this project on hold as I turned my attention to writing Il-Ktieb Roża - Dnub, Diżordni u Delitt? (The Pink Book - A Sin, Disorder and Crime?), in the end, published in 1997.

Following my appearance on Pjazza Tlieta, I became aware that many Maltese still gleaned their information on homosexuality from sensationalised newspaper reports, mostly about erring gay men. There was no serious public education, no gay and lesbian fighters, and critics and supporters alike showed appalling ignorance of the dimensions of homosexuality, now taken for granted in Western countries. Many Maltese, including some gay men and lesbians, failed to appreciate the nature and extent of homosexual oppression.

Professional engagements delayed the project further. Upon my return to Australia in 1994, I settled in far-away Townsville to take up an appointment as a family lawyer with Queensland Legal Aid. In 1997, I returned to Melbourne to start work as an immigration solicitor. In 1998, I commenced work as a sole practitioner, working mostly in the areas of immigration, criminal, family and same-sex law. A major but welcomed source of delay was the wealth of information I gathered. I was delighted to come across the flourishing drag scenes of Strait Street and Balzunetta and the intriguing network of gay men in Rabat. Each area of research opened up new horizons. Many gay men and lesbians approached me, with their own interesting stories to tell.

The book will meet resistance in some quarters and create a controversy or two. I am aware also that criticism of the book may have little to do with its actual contents. While I care little for controversy and I do not seek to offend or shock anyone, criticism of this work is unavoidable. Self-righteous Maltese will disagree with the main thrust of the work. For them, Malta’s gay men and lesbians are best left invisible. A smattering of gay men and lesbians will criticize the book for unnecessarily drawing the wider community’s attention to them. They may find the book discomforting and disruptive to the lifestyle to which they have grown accustomed. They fail to understand that as long as we remain invisible, gay men and lesbians have no hope of attaining equality.

Some may protest over the inclusion of names of prominent but deceased homosexuals with no right to reply. Such criticism, if universally applied, will swiftly spell the end of history as a discipline. They may also argue that these prominent Maltese homosexuals did not identify themselves as such and were not part of and may have even denounced the gay and lesbian movement. I respectfully disagree. Most of those mentioned were not married. Some were or were believed to have been in long-term same-sex relationships, refusing to be part of what some have referred to as the fraud of marriage, so typical of men and women of their generation and sexual orientation. As far as the men are concerned, they were not unlike the good girls of America, those conservative chinos-and-sweater gays who neither explicitly denied not explicitly affirmed their sexuality. Many opted to live life in glass closets, pretending (or deluding themselves) that their sexuality was not public knowledge except to the initiated, the in-group of gay men and lesbians, when in fact the rest of the nation was not so easily fooled.

This book is not a history of homosexuality in the Maltese archipelago although several historical dimensions are included. I have endeavoured to showcase homosexuality in the Maltese archipelago and how gay men and lesbians dealt with their sexuality. I have not set out to write a politically correct book or to produce a work that conforms to any set social or political agenda. I have not twisted history to gloss over the warts of our gay and lesbian experience.

Much of this work depends on the reminiscences of ordinary gay men and lesbians who were kind enough to share them with me. Some responded to my questions with surprising candour. Others were more guarded. As is the case with similar works on homosexuality, oral history plays a considerable and significant part in the recording of our story. Those who lived the love that dared not speak its name hardly ever documented their everyday experiences. Gaydar, that art of spotting like-minded men and women by breaking through the walls of disguise, continued to lurk in the background … and some of my sneaking suspicions were later confirmed.

Initially, I decided not to have the book distributed in Malta because of the island’s stifling and repressive defamation laws. The smothering impact of the law on freedom of expression was highlighted in 2001 when Countess Marie Thérèse Deguara Caruana Gatto and other members of this apparently distinguished family issued proceedings against Giovanni Bonello, a prominent and prudent lawyer and a judge on the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The Countess and her family thought Bonello’s Histories of Malta - Deceptions and Perceptions defamed their long-deceased relative, the bishop Francesco Saverio Caruana who was ordained priest in 1783. Although this not-so-good bishop had been dead since 1847, the Countess and her family sought to recover damages in excess of £M5,000.00. Such proceedings tend to depict a people that are precious and insular. They also make a mockery of Malta, its judiciary and its legal system. On 23 September 2007, I was astounded to hear historian Professor Henry Frendo admit, on the SBS Maltese radio programme, that Malta’s PBS dropped a series of one-hour historical documentaries on the ground that the documentaries dealt with recent political events in Malta.

Malta’s membership of the EU, which it joined in 2004, is already impacting the lives of Maltese. In 2008, a Maltese court ruled that an imputation of homosexuality was no longer capable of being defamatory. Some have taken this ruling to the extreme. One journalist, who repeatedly tells us that she is not a homophobe, outed a labour member of parliament who had been a victim of a home invasion. The journalist also wrongly represented two murdered victims as paederasts, seemingly hinting that they got what they deserved. Well worth bearing in mind that freedom of expression and sensationalist tabloid news are not the same.

For those unfamiliar with Malta, let me remind them that the Maltese archipelago consists of five islands (Malta, Gozo, Comino, Cominetto and Filfla) - not including Fungus Rock, Manoel Island and the islands of St Paul. All islands lie at the centre of the Mediterranean Sea. Malta, 17 miles long and 9 miles wide, covers an area of some 95 square miles. Gozo is around 26 square miles and is 9 miles long and 5 miles wide. Comino and Cominetto are small in comparison, totalling an area of 1 square mile. Filfla, an uninhabited rock and a small barren island some five kilometres south of Malta, was a target for gunnery practice during the Second World War. It is the most southerly point of the Maltese archipelago and would make an ideal gay resort. Sicily is some 58 miles to the north of the Maltese archipelago and Tripoli lies around 220 miles to its south. Size aside, the Maltese archipelago is rich in history. But with all due respect, the Maltese archipelago is hardly an ideal gay and lesbian resort. The good old days of a cheap holiday and hospitable people are a thing of the past.

The inclusion of the word queer in the book’s title is devoid of today’s political correctness and theoretical underpinnings. The word was especially common in the first half of the twentieth century, particularly in Great Britain, and many Maltese men embraced it as they embraced the sailors. The word beat is used in this book to refer to an area used by gay men for casual sex, known in other English-speaking countries as cottaging and cruising. In Australia, the word parodies the beat of a policeman or a prostitute. The letters TFM (Translated from Maltese), at the end of the footnotes, refer to my translation of the original Maltese into English. The translation does not follow slavishly the Maltese original but aims at being faithful, intelligible and, as far as possible, readable. Also, all Scriptural quotations are taken from The NIV Thematic Study Bible - New International Version (1st ed, 1996).

I am honoured to present this book about an aspect - an often ignored aspect - of the history of the country of my birth, a country I love dearly. It is an account of my gay brothers and lesbian sisters whose story has been concealed and whose memory repressed. My yearning is that the book will, in some way, contribute towards the recovery of our memory. May it be a prelude to more exhilarating days ahead and may gay and lesbian pride supplant the silence.

JOSEPH CARMEL CHETCUTI

NORTH CARLTON, VICTORIA

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Iam indebted to those who shared with me their recollections of rich personal lives. Without their help and guidance, this book would have passed over many of the significant moments of the gay and lesbian experience in the Maltese archipelago. Female impersonator Cookie of Floriana (the late Karmenu Preca) recalled not only his rich personal story and reminiscences of the Strait Street and Balzunetta strips but also many of his close friendships. I was impressed by his remarkable attention to detail, his sense of humour, his humanity and, not least, his devotion to God. Cookie brought back to life the drag shows of the Klondyke not only with his description of them but also with the charming photographs he so kindly gave me. He was unapologetic about his sexuality but he always sidestepped the issue of his sexual relationships, a cause of some mirth most of the time. The late Saviour (Vince) Lofaro showed no such anxiety. While unable or unwilling to be very particular about events, Vince was more forthright about his sexual and intimate encounters. He would probably be disgruntled at the fact that I did not include them in the book. However, by combining Cookie’s and Vince’s accounts, I was able to paint a fuller picture of the gay and lesbian experience of the 1940s and 1950s. Charlie Willie Camilleri, il-Golliwog, although his health precluded him from talking to me, was only too willing to make several photographs available to me.

Charles Agius recounted Carnival’s mock marriages. Louis Pace, Fiorella, Freeda of Marsa and Mosta’s Mimi took me through their accounts of the beauty pageants. I thank Silvan Agius, Christian Attard, Patrick Attard, Charles Bayliss, John Bugeja (Vanilla), Aldo Ciangura, Frank Ciarlò, Charles Debono, Marija Debono, Żaren DeGabriele, the late Baron Joseph Drago, Anton Farrugia, Michael Hall, Rita Johnstone, Sandro Mangion, René Micallef, Alfred Muscat, Edgar Sammut, Antoine Spiteri, Ġużi Sultana, the friends of Leli l-Bużli and Patist l-iskarpan (Patist the shoemaker) and the relatives of other gay men who lived in Rabat. The late Joseph Barbara, formerly Patri Valentin Barbara OP, kindly translated a 1602 document about Fra Nikola Carratello. Andrew Marshall and Rupert Ford offered valuable information about the literary and personal life of their friend Christopher Kininmonth. I thank also Bishop John Shelby Spong for his permission to include an excerpt of an interview that I conducted with him in 1997 in Richmond, Victoria.

Mario Azzopardi, George Emanuel Falzon, Albert Marshall, Immanuel Mifsud, Carmel Scicluna and Trevor Zahra read drafts of my review of their writings. Azzopardi and Marshall offered insights into Malta’s literary and theatrical traditions. Dr Garry Wotherspoon, a Sydney-based historian and formerly of the University of Sydney, Dr Graham Willett, a historian with the Australian Center at the University of Melbourne, and Dr Maria Palotta-Chiarolli of Deakin University kindly read the manuscript and offered useful suggestions. I thank also Dr Emy Bezzina for advice and assistance on aspects of Maltese law as they affect gay men and lesbians.

I was also pleased to receive responses from Deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg, Charles Buttigieg (former Curia spokesperson for the Diocese of Malta), David Casa (member of the European Parliament), Monsignor Paul Cremona (archbishop of Malta), Monsignor Joseph Mercieca (Emeritus archbishop of Malta), Fr Anthony Refalo (public relations officer of the Gozo Diocese) who wrote on behalf of Monsignors Nikol Cauchi and Mario Grech, Monsignor Charles Vella and the Prime Minister’s Communications Officer (David Herrera) and Personal Secretary (Josephine Vassallo). That so many prominent Maltese took the time to reply to my letters and provide comments on what I had written about them in the book was encouraging because I was able to discern in all of them a growing respect towards gay men and lesbians notwithstanding, at times, our different points of view.

Not everyone was helpful. Some letters were left unanswered. Government departments in Malta have much to learn about basic courtesies. A gay man wrote to me on 29 April 1999:

I have come across your request on the internet regarding (name withheld) (demise). You have already called ... some 6 years ago and found me. I told you if you want some information about (name withheld) I am the only one that I can give correct information about him ... I know (sic) him for over 20 years.

I repeat my name ... You are kindly requested to take off the internet your request for information about (name and surname withheld) - forthwith.

I replied to his letter on 19 May 1999 and graciously took up his offer with a list of questions. His reply of 24 May 2001, punctuated by bad grammar and worse spelling, provides entertaining reading:

I am in receipt of your note 19 May 1999. Which I found quite pathetic - is there not much one can do in Australia? beside the collecting of wine corks.

It was pathetic to read in your letter that in our society we still have little ‘frustrated Queens’ (hope you’re not one of them), speculating on shifty questions about death (sic) people who are not here to defend them self [sic].

... It is therefore my duty, to reserve the right to take actions befitting any provoking issue instigated on the said.

To hold you amicably, I would suggest to you what I have already suggested to you six years ago:-

*Let sleeping dogs lay (sic)."

Keep smiling and your face will look better.

Besides showing appalling ignorance of the English language, the author inadvertently confirmed his friend’s sexual orientation.

In early 2000, I received an unsolicited e-mail from a man who called himself Omar. Omar claimed to be English. He said that he had resided in Malta for over 25 years and offered this advice:

I cannot but express my deep concern, and, in this, I am not alone, at the fact that the book you are about to publish, might cause more harm than good.

In the past, here in Malta, you have been associated with a very outspoken and straightforward attitude.

Undoubtedly, this goes to your credit and should be commended, but when one reaps the fruits of such an attitude, disappointment is inevitable.

You get more locals on your side if you present a soft-spoken and, to a certain extent, compromising front, rather than pinpointing and outing individuals and/or institutions.

I responded promptly to his e-mail but not necessarily diplomatically. I told him I did not care for what he described, earlier in the letter, as the Maltese way of doing things. In Malta, the politics of accommodation and compromise has accomplished little for gay men and lesbians. I explained I did not consider it a priority to get locals on-side. Our struggle, as I saw it, was a matter of human rights and that these human rights were ours to claim particularly in light of Malta’s intention to join the EU. I wrote also that I was not prepared to rely on the largesse of any political party or institution in Malta. I asked Omar if he wrote and spoke Maltese. I have yet to receive his reply. To be blunt, I doubt that Omar is his real name. Omar also seems particularly unfamiliar with the history of his country’s struggle for gay and lesbian liberation. Many British gay men and lesbians do not share his politics of accommodation and compromise.

In writing this book, I am not necessarily concerned with the sexual orientation of any of those who offered information and assistance. I reiterate that unless otherwise expressly stated, the sexual orientation of those who have contributed to this book or who are mentioned throughout the account is not to be assumed. To ascribe them a particular sexual orientation may not only be unreasonable but, in some cases, also untrue.

CHAPTER 1 - LAWS OF MALTA

Precisely because laws are devised and applied within a framework

which assumes the normality and superiority of heterosexuality,

the situations in which we are not all equal under the law are myriad ...

In some instances, laws have been deliberately designed to suppress or contain

gay and lesbian sexualities. A more subtle form of discrimination

stems from the law’s written assumption that everyone is heterosexual.

In many cases there is also an explicit purpose to promote heterosexual marriage.

Gooding, C., Trouble with the Law?

A Legal Handbook for Lesbian and Gay Men (1st ed, 1992) 1-12.

Malta’s inaugural gay pride march of 22 July 2004 attracted some 100 participants including four members of parliament, among them a serving minister in Malta’s conservative government. Not a bad effort! Australia’s first gay protest of 6 October 1971, outside Sydney’s Ash Street Liberal Party headquarters, drew a smaller crowd ... between 70 and 80 gay men, lesbians and heterosexual supporters. The protest of 15 September 1973, when gay activists laid a wreath at Sydney’s Cenotaph Memorial in Martin Place, numbered only around 200.

There was nothing overtly sexual or erotic about Malta’s gay pride march. There were no drag queens, no dykes on bikes and not a bare bum in sight. There were no send-ups of crusaders against homosexuality. Such was the conservatism of the march that an organiser reportedly pleaded with one protester not to be critical of Dr Lawrence Gonzi, Malta’s Prime Minister and a nephew of an arch-conservative archbishop of Malta. Incredibly, there were even reports of organizers trying to make the march apolitical.

An air of respectability hung over placards and banners. Banners carrying messages such as Lesbians Ignite! or Lesbians are alive and well in Malta and Gozo! were nowhere to be seen. I do not recall seeing words like lesbian, dyke, poofter or queer anywhere. Much of what was written on banners and placards was in English, losing its immediate impact on ordinary Maltese and probably reinforcing the public perception that gay men are snobs who cling to a colonial past. There were no chants like 2, 4, 6, 8 - Gay is as good as straight! or Ho! Ho! Ho! Homosexual! Only the sound of a lonely drum!

Malta’s first pride march brought together a diverse group. Some of the gay men and lesbians who took part in the march were young professionals with much to risk. Unlike older generations of Maltese, this generation of young gay men and lesbians was not afraid to stand up and be counted. Heterosexuals were also at the march. All walked behind a banner announcing, notwithstanding its punctuation, Gay Rights? Human Rights!

Law regulates every aspect of our everyday life and death. It often treats gay men and lesbians differently and unfairly and is applied selectively to discourage public displays of same-sex affection. Its overall framework assumes everyone to be heterosexual and part of the traditional family. Section 20 of the Pensions Ordinance affords a clear-cut example. It sets out that an unmarried widow is entitled to a pension if her husband is murdered while in the actual discharge of his duty or dies from an injury specifically attributable to his duties. The Ordinance provides also for the dependent mother of a deceased person where a deceased person leaves no widow or motherless children. The Ordinance extends no benefits to same-sex partners.

Maltese law is silent on gay men and lesbians except for Legal Notice 297 of 2003, Legal Notice 461 of 2004, Legal Notice 53 of 2007 and Legal Notice 54 of 2007 which deal with discrimination in labour laws. Malta has no laws prohibiting discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation by government bodies, educational authorities and clubs in areas such as the provision of goods, services and accommodation. It has no Sexual Orientation Equality Act, as it has for the grounds of sex and disability, and it is probably not unlawful to vilify gay men or lesbians.

The bias of the law is apparent in Chapter IV of the Constitution of Malta. The Chapter lists fundamental rights and freedoms but affords no protection from discrimination, harassment and vilification on the ground of lawful sexual activity, sexual orientation, gender identity, impairment or assumed impairment or personal association with a person who is identified by reference to any of these attributes.¹ Somewhat alarming is Article 32 of the Constitution which states that a person’s fundamental rights and freedoms are conditional on the public interest and the rights and freedoms of others. Identifying and construing the public interest is not always easy. Public interest often provides a convenient pretext for governments to encroach on the rights of gay men and lesbians particularly in light of Article 2 of the Constitution which declares Malta’s official religion to be the Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion. Article 2 confers on Church authorities the duty and right to teach which principles are right and wrong. Do Church authorities of other religions not enjoy the same duty and right?

This chapter does not purport to provide a comprehensive or up-to-date analysis of the law’s treatment of sexuality in Malta. It merely offers glimpses into how the law can adversely impact Maltese gay men and lesbians. A common fallacy is that only some areas of the law touch upon gay men and lesbians. This chapter puts to rest that proposition. A case in point is Malta’s defamation law which has the effect of muzzling not only gay men and lesbians as they go about their daily business of living but also professional historians and academics who may find themselves reluctant participants in a courtroom drama.

ADOPTION LAW - Adoption is a complex social, psychological and legal process where a child attains the legal status of the adopting person. It facilitates the care of a child when the immediate and extended family is usually unable or unwilling to offer such care. Adoption in Malta is regulated by the country’s Civil Code (Laws of Malta, Chapter 16), more particularly Article 115. The International Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), particularly Article 3, further provides that the best interest of the child shall be a primary consideration.

Andorra, Belgium, the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, South Africa, Spain and parts of Canada already sanction adoption by gay and lesbian parents. Denmark, Germany, Iceland and Norway allow stepchild adoption where the partner in a civil union can adopt the natural child of his/her partner. With the decriminalization of homosexuality and increased permanency and stability in gay and lesbian relationships, governments and courts are finding it increasingly hard to link a person’s homosexuality with parental unfitness. Many gay men and lesbians are already parents, and good parents at that, whether raising children as single parents in homosexual households or under the guise of a heterosexual family.

Adoption laws, as set out in Articles 113-130A of the Code, permit both sole and joint applications. Adoption applications are open to single persons or two spouses living together provided that the applicant or, in the case of a joint application, one of the applicants is at least twenty-eight years of age but not more than forty-five years older than the person to be adopted. An applicant who is the mother or father of the person to be adopted may adopt that person provided that he or she has attained majority.

The Adoption Unit of the Department for Social Welfare Standards appraises the suitability of applicants. A departmental Adoption and Fostering Panel advises the Unit. The Panel consists of six members: a doctor, a social worker, a social worker from a children’s home, a teacher, a marriage counsellor and an adoptive mother. The Unit aims to find suitable alternative families for children who, for some reason or other, cannot live with their natural parents. It offers counselling, information, training and post-adoption assistance and also helps persons trace their natural parents.

A social worker from the Unit prepares a Home Study Report for the Adoption and Fostering Panel to consider. In assessing a person’s suitability to adopt, the social worker considers, amongst other things, the applicant’s stability of marriage and his or her lifestyle. The Panel then forwards its recommendation to the Director of the Department of Social Welfare Standards. An adoption application is then lodged with the local courts or, where necessary, competent authorities overseas.

Departmental policy and practices favour the placement of children with married couples. A Service Information Sheet, issued by the Department for Social Welfare Standards, asks prospective adoptive parents to provide a range of documents including birth and good conduct certificates for husbands and wives, a marriage certificate, blood tests for HIV and Hepatitis B for husbands and wives, photographs of husbands and wives, a family photograph and a statement of family income. The Sheet makes repeated references to the prospective adoptive family and prospective adoptive parents. It presumes applicants to be heterosexual, married and in a traditional family unit. While the Code does not appear to ban adoption by gay men and lesbians, departmental policy and procedures dissuade applications by single persons and put adoption out of the reach of gay men and lesbians.

The decision of 22 January 2008 of the European Court of Human Rights, in EB v France,² should greatly impact Maltese law. In this case, a majority of the Court found, by ten votes to seven, that the exclusion of a person from the application process of adoption on the ground of that person’s sexual orientation was discriminatory and in breach of Article 14 (Enjoyment of Rights without Discrimination) of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms taken in conjunction with Article 8 of the same Convention. The decision represents a departure from the Court’s earlier decision in Fretté v France³ where it held, by four votes to three, that the exclusion of a gay man from the application process of adoption of children did not violate Articles 6 (Right to a Fair and Public Hearing), 8 (Right to respect for private and family life) and 14 (Enjoyment of Rights without Discrimination) of the Convention.

CENSORSHIP LAW - The Cinema and Stage Regulations provide, amongst other things, that no building shall be used for cinematograph exhibitions unless the premises are, in the opinion of the Commissioner of Police, not open to objection on the ground of proximity to a church. Regulation 49 stipulates that no film shall be exhibited in any place unless the licensee has a certificate from the Customs authorities giving particulars and the date of entry of the film and a certificate from the Commissioner of Police to the effect that the film has been passed by the classifiers. Regulation 55 adds that stills (posters, notices, photographs, pamphlets or synopsis relative to films) shall not be exhibited outside the licensed premises unless they have been previously passed by the classifiers. Regulation 64 fixes similar restrictions on dramatic and other stage productions.

The Cinema and Stage Regulations empower the Commissioner of Police in several ways. Regulation 38 provides that an interval shall not be held during the showing of the main feature film without the written permission of the Commissioner. The Commissioner may also suspend any exhibition and close any cinematograph building for a period not exceeding fifteen days for reasons of public order or morality or non-compliance with any of the Regulations.

The Regulations establish the Board of Film and Stage Classification. The Board is appointed annually and consists of a chairperson and no less than five and not more than fifteen members. At the time of writing this chapter, the Board includes Dr Dione Mifsud, the Reverend Fr Norbert Ellul Vincenti, an author, critic and a member of the Franciscan Minors, and Charles Thake, an actor. Mifsud is the coordinator of the Counselling Unit at the University of Malta and holds a Master of Science in Counselling and a Bachelor of Education. Ellul Vincenti was born in 1937 and Thakes in 1927. During the screening of the blockbuster film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at Valletta’s Embassy Cinema, a member of the Board (Joseph P Portelli) reportedly asked a father and his young son to leave a local cinema because the child was under 12 years of age.⁴ The Board had classified the film as not suitable for children under 12. Incidentally, the Australian Office of Film and Literature gave the film an M (Mature Audience) classification. The same Board member reportedly also claimed that Malta no longer has censors!⁵

Decisions relating to the classification of films and the stage take into account the same matters as those set out in the Australian Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995:

(a) the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults;

(b) the literary, artistic and educational merit, if any, of the production;

(c) the general character of the production, including whether it is of medical, legal or scientific character; and

(d) the person or class of persons to whom it is intended or by whom the production is likely to be viewed.

However, in Malta, the Board reports to the police Commissioner, not the Minister.

Society has not one but multiple standards of morality, and standards of morality are in constant flux. People, including reasonable adults, think differently about the ingredients that make up these standards. Significantly, religion is not integral to a code of morality ... and standards of morality and standards of belief are not the same. There are good humanist and secular (not just religious) standards of morality and, to state the obvious, many of these predate Christianity. It is not the role of governments to legislate and push biblical standards of morality.

The problem for Malta is that the Constitution declares the Roman Catholic Apostolic Faith as the island’s religion and empowers Roman Catholic authorities with the duty and the right to teach which principles are right and which are wrong. Article 2 of the Constitution requires state