And why are you so preoccupied about my age. I have no hang ups about it or getting old. Do you worry about getting old and becoming an old rag? Is not the alternative less pleasant? Many have not made it this far. One other thing: is there anything good with Maltese Labour? And you may well be wrong about my political views at least within the Australian context. For the record I am no great admirer of federal Labour. But if I were in Malta I would not demean myself to vote PN.

“Jacques just can’t get over the fact that nobody reads his blog because it’s so damned boring and irrelevant, and likes to make out (and kid himself) that the reason people read this is because it’s trashy.”
Oh, who could ever think DCG is thrashy! She is so, so, so sophisticated. A model for women. Just like the Virgin herslef.

[Daphne – The last person who knows what the ‘model of a woman’ should be like is an embittered homosexual man in his 60s. In the contemporary world, nobody speaks of models of womanhood anymore, except for your favourite target, the Roman Catholic Church. You can take a man out of the 1950s, but you can’t take the 1950s out of the man.]

“When I started writing my newspaper column – in 1990, not the dark ages – The Sunday Times and The Times employed no women in the newsroom as a matter of policy and I was the first woman ever in Malta to write a newspaper column about politics and current affairs with my name and photograph on top. And people used to stop me and ask me, in all seriousness and without being aware of just how shockingly offensive they were, whether my husband or my father helped me write them, given that I didn’t have a brother.”

Did they really? It takes a person of exceptional gifts to write with the kind of venom that you continually engage in.
Keep flying the PN flag! Your Labour’s best asset.

[Daphne – Why do bitter people always favour Labour, even if they emigrated to Australia decades ago and their bitterness is the result of their homosexuality and nothing to do with politics? It’s amazing. Mr Chips. Gay chips, Labour chips – what else?]

Zammit does not use Facebook to advertise his “affairs” as some PN members have done. How bloody cheap! The reason you do not take the PL seriously on gay and lesbian issues is because you are a PN supporter. Get real.

Perhaps Hibernating Away from Malta should tell us his real name.

I suppose you could see it that way if you choose to. However, in a democratic world, people do not bend to the will of authorities, or subscribe to anything that goes against their own opinions, regardless of who the authorities are. It is the authorities who are expected to provide for the people and be in touch with the people. We do not live in a dictatorship.

The Roman Catholic Church can stand its ground, and can voice its opinion on matters, but clearly it is losing more and more support, even from its followers too. This difference in what the Church says and what its followers say is likely to grow over the years, especially if it refuses to budge on issues that the rest of the world has moved on from.

If something does not change with the times, it dies out and stops existing. Its like a language in that respect. The Church cannot dictate to people what to think and how to live any more than a president or political leader can.

I understand why the Church takes a long time to change. It is a religion and like all religions is very protective over what is known to be the truth. However, it feels more and more as though the Church is standing it s ground and laughing in the face of science, psychology and, in fact, its own ethos of loving and accepting everyone.

Telling someone that, even though they are born different, they have to live in a way that will deprive them of the things others get without question, is not showing them love, respect or compassion. It is oppressing them.

@ Edward Caruana Galizia

‘This shows how the Church is very out of touch with its people since most do not actually support its stance on homosexuality. In fact the majority are against the Church on this one.’

It is people who are out of touch with the church. They are ridiculously expecting the church to change to fit to their beliefs.

Jellybaby88- Good point. You, like many other Catholics, have no problem with homosexuals. There are also many Catholics who have no problem with gay marriage either. Tony Blair spoke about this once in a newspaper article.

This shows how the Church is very out of touch with its people since most do not actually support its stance on homosexuality. In fact the majority are against the Church on this one.

The Church has a very round about way of being OK with homosexuality. They cannot call being gay a sin because they know, like everyone else, that one is born gay. You cannot be a sin. However the church says it is the act that they are against.

Many people think this is fair, but they do not truly understand what it means for a gay man or woman. Telling someone that they can never know a loving relationship that is intimate, both emotionally and physically, is evil. Do not tell me that a friendship and a marriage are the same thing since the love in a marriage is expressed in a very different way.

If both were the same thing then no one would get married, or we would all marry anyone we think we can get along with, and no one would bother going out on dates and finding Mr/Mrs Right. Clearly there is a big difference between a normal friendship and a deep meaningful and loving relationship one shares with a husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend. Everyone has the right to both.

Telling someone they can never know what it is to love someone in such a way is wrong.

Yes, telling someone they cannot get married and have their union recognized as marriage for a reason as fallacious as ” because you re not straight” is discriminatory. You do not see this because you are not at the receiving end of it.

If you oppose anything about gay people then you are homophobic too. If you were not homophobic then you would not only have gay friends, but go to their wedding, and encourage them to ignore any claims that homosexuality is wrong in any way.

I understand that you might think what I am saying is harsh. It is after all your opinion and you are entitled to an opinion and should not have someone else’s opinion thrust upon you. This is true. But I am not telling you to go and get married to someone of the same gender. I am not the one expecting you to live by my rules and opinion.

If our country introduced gay marriage, you will still be able to not agree with it, and you will still be free to not get married to a person of the same gender. However, as it stands, it is gay people who have to live by the rules and opinions of the conservatives, who have made their opinion law. This is wrong.

To bring this back to the original blog entry, having a gay man in parliament does give gay people more of a voice and it is reassuring to know this as a lot of the time our opinions do not seem to be heard by our government which is made up of heterosexuals and therefore people who do not understand what conservative ideals mean to our lives.

In the early 1900s a mother was giving her daughter some last minute pre-marital tips. “Some men are perverts ” she warned “and they like to stick it up the wrong hole. Beware.”

After about a year’s marriage, with a decent enough sex life, the husband said to his wife: “How about a bit of variety tonight? Let’s try it from the front for a change.”

“No way” she said “my mother warned me about men like you.”

I was told this story by an elderly lady, who assures me it’s gospel.