June 2, 2008 - 13:58
A court has backed the Director of Public Registry who will not
release marriage banns for a transsexual woman and her male partner in
Malta. In February 2007 Justice Gino Camilleri ordered the director,
Anthony Geraldi, to issue the banns on the grounds that the union is
legal. He ruled, as the bride to be has now become a woman, there was
no contravention of marriage legislation. However, the Civil Court has
now overturned that ruling. Mr Geraldi argues that the change in the
Act of Birth of the transsexual that allows a change of name and
gender was only to protect her privacy and does not mean that she can
now be considered a woman in legal terms, as her surgery was cosmetic.
His resistance to the marriage is not without popular support. Only
18% of the Maltese population support gay marriage, a 2006
Eurobarometer survey found. Malta is one of the most socially
conservative countries in the EU. 98% of the population are Roman
Catholics, and although homosexuality is legal, there remains
significant prejudice. The Mediterranean island, a British colony
until 1964, has around 400,000 inhabitants and is the smallest EU
state in terms of both size and population. In 2000 the government was
criticised by gay rights groups for openly homophobic statements
criticising EU proposals to treat gay people equally. Gay rights
groups on the island said they would take the case of the trans woman
to the European Court of Human Rights.
I feel out of place here. I'm not Maltese. I fall in the 18% and the 2% non-roman catholic.
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