Malta Today: TPPI report: Alternattiva Demokratika reiterates full equality stand

Greens: TPPI’s civil unions report takes presumed standpoint of a heterosexual society and disregards the feelings of the gay community

http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/TPPI-report-Alternattiva-Demokratika-reiterates-full-equality-stand-20130520
Monday 20 May 2013 - 11:41 by a Staff Reporter

Alternattiva Demokratika, the Green Party, has questioned the main conclusion of the Today Public Policy Institute's report on the civil rights of LGBTI persons, which said the introduction of gay marriage was premature for the Maltese islands.

"Alternattiva Demokratika is sceptical about the main conclusion of this report, which called on the government to take the necessary and long overdue action to remedy the discriminatory position of the gay community, but then it does not believe that the institution of marriage should be extended to homosexual couples because Maltese society is not yet ready for such a bold move," Angele Deguara, AD Spokesperson for Social Policy and Civil Rights, said.

"Alternattiva Demokratika feels that such reasoning only takes into consideration the presumed standpoint of a heterosexual society while disregarding the rights and feelings of the LGBT community," Deguara said.

"While Alternattiva Demokratika reiterates its position in favour of full equality in all aspects of social life regardless of sexual orientation and sexual identity, it questions the empirical basis on which the TPPI conclusion is based.

"Furthermore, the Green Party believes that Maltese society should strive to eliminate all forms of discrimination against all disadvantaged groups and LGBTI people are no different."

Deguara says a more just society was needed where equality means equality for all, not only for those which Maltese society may consider more equal than others. "In an international context where the rights of LGBTI people are increasingly being recognised in different parts of the world, the only form of progress that AD can accept is that civil unions are given priority and offered to both same-sex and different-sex partners only to pave the way for a discussion on eventual marriage equality."