Come off it Daphne, this is not a competition to see who has suffered most (which is highly debatable anyway), it’s about a minority being granted a legal right which the rest of the population takes for granted.

Besides, if you think women had it so bad then how tough must it have been for Maltese lesbians in those times?

There were lesbians celebrating too. Stop being churlish and accept that this was a great step forward for many people. By mistakenly trying to make this out to be a Labour victory you are just reinforcing the idea that the PN essentially does not care much about LGBT issues, which is how it’s perceived right now.

Actually, I am somewhat aware. I’m following a course on gender studies at university and I am deeply invested in women’s issues. Both women and LGBT people have suffered under the patriarchal system. Am I saying that being gay is easier than being woman? No – I am merely relating my experience as a gay person living in Malta now.

And a joke about a cold is different to hearing ‘ARA DAWN IT TNEJN IHOBBUH F’S*ORMOM *hooligan laughter* when you are on a date – or – ‘TAF FEJN IDAHLUH IL-GAYS? HEKK TRID INT?’ and this from a teacher.

I’m not saying that women do not experience these kinds of verbal attacks.

[Daphne – Yes, in fact we experienced far worse than that. And at least in your case it’s just verbal and you weren’t routinely followed and harassed by flashers and perverts making obscene suggestions. Or have men begin masturbating next to you on a public beach so that you had to pack up your things and leave. Are gay men grabbed between the legs as they walk along? Are they examined from top to bottom and have to walk the gauntlet of a narrative description of their body parts as they try to reach their car or the bus? I don’t think so.]

Who else can understand what is it like to be gay in a deeply Catholic (and let’s face it, sometimes backward) country? Who else has gone through the heartache of having homophobic parents/friends/colleagues? Who else can empathise with being laughed at for holding my partner’s hand? The gay community, the community which can understand and accept.

[Daphne – Count your lucky stars you didn’t grow up a girl/woman in Malta in the 1960s – 1990s (it was a hell of a lot worse before that) if you think your experience as a gay boy/man in the 1990s-present was so terrible. You really have no idea. I think we can extend the jokes about men with colds behaving as though they are dying of cancer whereas women with colds just take two Panadol and go to work to this field too.]