Malta Today: In the footsteps of Austin? | Emanuel Delia

From student leader to the face of transport reform: Austin Gatt’s right-hand man Emanuel Delia is already a PN mainstay but will his political adventure prove successful?

http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/interview/In-the-footsteps-of-Austin-Emanuel-Delia-20120908
Sunday 9 September 2012 - 15:39 by  James Debono


PN candidate Emanuel Delia. (Photo: Ray Attard/MediaToday)

Emanuel Delia, a former Students' Council president during the 1997 'stipend' protests, has lurked in the shadows of the veteran, bullish Transport Minister Austin Gatt for the past 15 years, serving as one of his top ministry officials. He has been privy to some of the country's most important of reforms, most recently the public transport reform which - by way of his resignation offer (turned down) - nearly cost him his job. Now he is taking the plunge by standing as a PN candidate in the forthcoming election. It always looked like the inevitable destiny for one of the Nationalist Party's most dedicated of young Turks, who has been intimate with his party-in-government's policies for almost two decades now.

iNews Malta: Edwin Vassallo u l-liġi tal-koabitazzjoni: "Ma nixtieqx nikkummenta"

http://www.inewsmalta.com/dart/20120910-edwin-vassallo-li-tal-koabitazzjoni-ma-nixtieqx-nikkummenta
10:42 | 11.09.2012


Il-Membru Parlamentari Nazzjonalista, Edwin Vassallo ma xtaqx jikkummenta dwar il-liġi ta' koabitazzjoni mressqa mill-Ministru Chris Said ftit tal-ġimgħat ilu. Kien inewsmalta.com li talab ir-reazzjoni tad-deputat Mosti dwar dan l-abbozz ta' liġi li qiegħed jiżviluppa f'wieħed kontroversjali. Vassallo nzerta li huwa wkoll iċ-ċermen tal-Kumitat Soċjali tal-Parlament.

Malta Today: Here is an abortion of a Bill if ever there was one

http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/blogsdetails/blogs/Here-is-an-abortion-of-a-Bill-if-ever-there-was-one#

Joseph Carmel Chetcuti
Blog Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Maltese-Australian barrister Joseph Carmel Chetcuti, author of ‘A Queer History of Malta’, speaks out.


Executing a public deed and accessing certain remedies do not add up to a scheme of relationship registration.

Late this year I mark the 40th anniversary of my coming out. I vividly remember standing in York Street, Sydney, one evening, waiting to catch a bus to Balmain, then a soon-to-be gentrified inner suburb of Sydney. My destination was Terry Street where I was to attend a meeting of Cross-Section, Australia's first cluster of Christian homosexuals hell-bent on changing theology for the better. Long gone were days of wearing a black habit and boyhood dreams of becoming a Franciscan, my chanting and my hymns quickly making way for other more interesting 'hims' and refrains like 'Ho, Ho, Ho, homosexual' and 'Not the Church, not the State, gays will decide their fate

Malta Today: The Cohabitation Bill | A guide to the gay and lesbian outrage

Gay activist Silvan Agius explains why the cohabitation bill infuriated human rights advocates and gay community.

ttp://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/The-Cohabitation-Bill-A-guide-to-the-gay-and-lesbian-outrage-20120910
National Tuesday 11 September 2012 - 12:30


The fact that a civil cohabitation partnership may be terminated by one of the parties following the simple filing of "a judicial act" makes the process somewhat unceremonious.

Silvan Agius is policy director at the International Lesbian-Gay Association of Europe and lives in Brussels. He writes in his own capacity.

Much speculation on the likely contents of the cohabitation bill was floated in the media in the past couple of years. The initial indications pointed towards a bill that would provide a basic set of rights and duties, as well as the legal recognition of all unmarried couples irrespective of sexual orientation. Then, earlier this year, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Justice was reported to have stated that the bill would recognise the 'civil partnerships' of same-sex couples. Rightly or wrongly, this gave the impression that government was ready to provide for much more than the mere recognition of same-sex partners as cohabitees. In the absence of a Ministerial rebuttal of this claim, many took the media reports as factual. Indeed, faced with this prospect of the legal recognition of their families for the first time, the gay and lesbian community allowed its expectations to grow significantly. Their demand for an equal level of recognition to what is already enjoyed by most of their fellow Western and Central Europeans counterparts seemed to be finally about to materialise.

iNews Malta: Liġi tal-Koabitazzjoni (2)

http://www.inewsmalta.com/dart/20120909-li-tal-koabitazzjoni
15:55 | 09.09.2012 minn Cyrus Engerer

F’blog preċedenti tkellimt dwar ir-raġunijiet għalfejn GonziPN ħarġu b’leġislazzjoni dwar il-koabitazzjoni u għaliex din ma tagħmilx sens.

L-ikbar żball tal-liġi hu li hi sempliċiment immirata lejn koppji tal-istess sess u mhux neċessarjament għal persuni li jikkoabitaw. Ma kienetx sorpriża għal ħadd, ħlief għal GonziPN peress li maqtugħin mir-realtà, li kull organizzazzjoni li titkellem dwar id-drittijiet tal-bniedem u d-drittijiet ta’ persuni LGBT ħarġet kontra din il-liġi.

Illum iddecidejt li nikteb dwar ir-raġunijiet għall-kritika ta’din il-liġi.

KullĦadd: It-tieni post fil-Mr Gay Europe

http://www.kullhadd.com/201209084372/Intervista/it-tieni-post-fil-mr-gay-europe.html
SATURDAY, 08 SEPTEMBER 2012 18:26 RAMONA PORTELLI

Ftit tal-jiem ilu, proprju fil-11 ta' Awwissu, f'Ruma giet organizzata l-finali ta' Mr Gay Europe 2012. Fosthom kien hemm Malta, fejn ir-rapprezentant Malti kien iz-zaghzugh Steve Grech.
Mr Gay Europe hija kompetizzjoni ghal mudelli maskili gay u li gejjin mill-Ewropa. Saret l-ewwel darba lura lejn is-sena 2005. Malta kienet hadet sehem l-ewwel darba fis-sena 2008. Ir-rapprezentant Malti kien proprju l-mudell Steve Grech. Kien mar tajjeb hafna, ghaliex kien kiseb it-tieni post. Din is-sena Steve rega' ppartecipa f'din il-kompetizzjoni u ghal darb'ohra rega' kiseb it-tieni post. Fl-ewwel post giet Spanja.

Tkellimt mieghu sabiex insir naf aktar dwaru, dwar il-kompetizzjoni annwali u anke dwar l-istil ta' hajja li qed jghix l-omosesswali tal-lum.
Ta' min jghid li dawn ma kienux l-ewwel kompetizzjonijiet tal-immudellar ghal Steve. Fil-fatt Steve ilu fil-qasam tal-moda minn mindu kellu sittax-il sena, u ghamel diversi reklami u kalendarji, kif ukoll irrapprezenta lil Malta diversi drabi.
Barra minn Malta kellu x-xorti li jaghmel xi reklami ghal xi clubs gewwa Londra.

It-Torċa: Liġi tal-koabitazzjoni: Mistennija talba biex isir abbozz ġdid

http://www.torca.com.mt/FullArticle.php?ID1='Ahbarijiet'&ID2=42833
9.8.12  minn Joseph Farrugia


Il-gvern mistenni jkun ippreżentat bi proposta mill-għaqdiet li jirrapreżentaw l-omosesswali biex l-abbozz tal-liġi tal-koabitazzjoni jsir mill-ġdid. Huma mistennija jżidu l-pressjoni tagħhom biex jingħataw trattament ugwali b’din il-liġi billi anke hemm suġġerit li jsir ‘sit in’ barra l-parlament meta tkun qegħda tkun diskussa din il-liġi.

Lejn l-aħħar tax-xahar li għadda l-Gvern ħabbar l-abbozz tal-liġi tal-koabitazzjoni, liġi li kienet ilha mwegħda u mpoġġija fuq l-ixkaffa sa mill-1998.

Times: Kill the Cohabitation Bill

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120909/opinion/Kill-the-Cohabitation-Bill.436129
Sunday, September 9, 2012 by Mark Anthony Falzon

There are people, and I happen to know a fair few of them, who think of marriage as a claustrophobic, unbearably bourgeois, and property-obsessed institution. They believe that there should properly be no ‘weaker party’ in a relationship and that it follows that there can be no question of passing on pensions, inheritances, and welfare benefits from one partner to another. They tend simply to live together as independent adults, finger held up to the State at all times.

These egalitarian rationalists are in a minority, truth be told. The majority is made up of dreamy incorrigibles who believe that diamonds are forever. They will also swear that the evidence suggests that it’s a wonderful idea to sign a contract promising to stand by one’s partner (or ‘spouse’, as they prefer to call them) till the end of time.

Times: Use of new pill to prevent HIV may be limited in US

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120909/world/Use-of-new-pill-to-prevent-HIV-may-be-limited-in-US.436146
Sunday, September 9, 2012 by Reuters

The first preventive pill for HIV has been hailed as a landmark in the fight against Aids in the US, but experts say only a small percentage of those at risk will benefit from it.

US health regulators last month approved Gilead Sciences Inc’s Truvada – already used globally to treat the human immunodeficiency virus – for preventing the infection in healthy people at high risk of contracting the virus that causes Aids.

Independent: Brief Encounter

http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=150330
08 September 2012

Peterson Toscano will soon be in Malta with his new one-person comedy Jesus had Two Daddies to be performed at St James Cavalier on 21 and 22 September. He talks to Marie Benoit mostly about the things he enjoys in his everyday life.

Peterson Toscano is an American theatrical performance activist currently on tour in the UK and Malta. 47-year-old Peterson says he can easily pass for 44 and on a good day, ever 43 because of his Italian genes. He writes and performs one-person comedies about faith, sexuality, and justice issues.