This is now beyond ridiculous. Has everyone gone stark(ers) raving mad?

The government-appointed chairman of the state Pharmacy Council (left)

We now live in a country where the government-appointed chairman of the state Pharmacy Council (on left of picture) poses nude for fun bondage photographs with his boyfriend and then the boyfriend uploads them on full public view on his Facebook page

Does this show how liberal and progressive Malta is? No, it shows how backward it is. In truly liberal and progressive countries, no distinction is made between gay and straight. If straight people in public office can’t behave this way (and you bet they can’t), then gay people in public office can’t do so either.

Another reason why this is backward thinking: special exceptions are made for gay men in this regard, which means society and those in authority expect “abnormal” behaviour from what they obviously think of as “pufti” and don’t expect them to behave like “normal” people.

If Joseph Chetcuti, chairman of the Pharmacy Council, is abnormal it is most certainly not because he’s gay. Something tells me he would have been exactly like this even if he were straight, and that would be a girl in the picture. But then he’d be expected to step down (do I detect a background chorus of cynical laughter?).