An important point: Cyrus Engerer’s crime was also a homophobic attack on his ex lover
Cyrus Engerer with the Labour mayor of Zurrieq: both are now convicted criminals. Natius Farrugia has a criminal conviction for harassment, a crime for which he and his two friends, who were convicted on the same charge, were fined Eur7,500.
Can gay men be homophobic themselves and perpetrate homophobic attacks? Of course they can – just as women can be misogynists, and so many women in Malta are.
The point we’re all missing, largely because the nature of the photographs Cyrus Engerer emailed out is such that no graphic description of them could be given in the court records (which include the pictures themselves) or the newspaper reports, is that Engerer’s attack on his ex lover was both homophobic and an attempt at provoking, through homophobia in others, contempt for his victim.
They weren’t simply ‘naked pictures’, but a whole lot more than that.
Engerer was clearly hoping that when his victim’s boss and office colleagues found the photographs in their email in-box, they would recoil in homophobic horror at the ‘disgusting pufta’ sitting at the next desk. What he was hoping for was certainly not just their laughing at him. They are not the sort of pictures you laugh at.
A (gay) man just sent me this email:
Cyrus Engerer’s case is doubly serious not only because he is now a convicted criminal who is campaigning for election, but more so because he used the homophobia in parts of our society to get back at his boyfriend after he left him.
He used those photographs to vilify his ex-boyfriend with his employer and friends.
Engerer, as the Labour Party’s – and now, the government’s – spokesperson and consultant on gay rights and civil liberties, is supposed to fight prejudice and homophobia, but he used precisely these weapons to vilify his ex-boyfriend.
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Wow. Hammer-Nail-Head! I hadn’t been able to put my finger on it yet. Sometimes we’re blind to such things because of the bloody politics.
Mr. Civil Rights is a homophobic bigot, and a homosexual to boot. Must be wonderful living on his planet.
Can you add to the mix that he is part of the push-backs government and tough talk on immigration? So now we have a xenophobic, eurosceptic, homophobic government all wrapped into one.
Cyrus Engerer has not offered a public apology for his crime or expressed any remorse. In fact he’s not even trying to persuade us that he has turned over a new leaf and is now reformed.
Both Engerer himself and the PM are behaving as if this Court judgement does not exist.
Another important point:
“Fl-ahhar il-Qorti ma tistax tinjora t-theddida (xhieda Marvic Camilleri, fol 103) illi l-appellat ghamel lill-kwerelant biex ma jkomplix ghaddej b’din il-kawza ghax jistghu johorgu certi affarijiet illi jkunu ta’ aktar misthija ghall-istess kwerelant.
Din ittheddida giet imsarrfa proprju fl-ahhar tal-gbir tal-provi meta fis-seduta tas-sitta u ghoxrin (26) ta’ Ottubru tal-elfejn u tnax (2012) (fol 188) id-difiza esebiet “pen drive” li allegatament kien fih filmat illi juri… “materjal li gie elevat mill-intimat…”.
Bir-ragun, il-prosekuzzjoni oggezzjonat ghal din il-prezentata izda l-Qorti ma tat l-ebda direttiva u l-envelope kontenti l-“pen drive” baqa’ fil-process. Dana juri f’liema livell waqa’ l-appellat sabiex joskura lill-kwerelant, igieghlu jirtira l-kwerela u jahbi r-responsabiltà tieghu ghal dan ir-reat. Fortunatament l-appellat ma rnexxilux f’dan l-ghan qarrieqi. ”
It says more about the defence lawyer than about Cyrus Engerer. The defence plan was certainly not the work of one individual.
When that defence lawyer is Franco Debono, everything takes on a whole new meaning and can be seen from a new perspective altogether.
http://www.independent.com.mt/mobile/2014-05-08/news/cyrus-engerer-given-two-year-suspended-jail-term-for-circulating-pornography-4903141376/
Engerer’s next move: The European Court of Human Rights.
On the basis of what?
He might try it as a distraction until the elections to draw sympathy towards him, but really the facts of the case speak for themselves.
If he suggests that politics was the reason for action against him, couldn’t one ask if politics would have been the reason why action would not have been taken against him?
As if.
Apropos that picture, Engerer is regularly seen in Zurrieq.
It is possible that Engerer thought that in exposing his ex-lover he would be severely harming his ex’s career prospects. And shame him. And make him “famous” for the wrong reason.
Which means that it could really have been a “homophobic attack”. In which case it begs the question: Why would a gay person believe that a homophobic attack on another gay person is universally seen as most damaging?
Obviously a gay person would know that a homophobic attack causes great distress to the person being attacked, because s/he’d probably been on the receiving end of it too.
I think that the homophobic theory doesn’t hold water. But for completeness’ sake, I think it’s appropriate to bring to the fore a maxim attributed to Sun Tzu, who wrote (brushed?) The Art of War. To know what frightens your enemy, observe that with which he tries to frighten you.
You know, NCPE is currently without an Executive Director ever since the last one was practically kicked out (having her contract renewed for one month until last December, and then they talk of tackling precarious work!). A soon-to-be iced bun for Cyrus to make up for his loss of the MEP election candidature, perhaps?
Seems incredible, I grant you that, but with these people in charge, you never know!
Mela Cyrus Engerer xi darba ta kaz ta’ xi principji morali? Dejjem ghamel dak li qabillu. Min jitwieled tond ma jmutx kwadru.
Adding what to has been said already, speaking as a gay man, what worries me even more is the message being given to the public and, specifically, gay people in general.
Unfortunately, throughout the years, (self-representing) Maltese gay role models have been people such as Felix tal-Yada, Albert Gauci Cunningham and Cyrus Engerer, besides various cooks, hairdressers, make-up artists and stylists on television.
Although there many who are more intelligent, qualified and successful, in jobs and careers not stereotypically associated with (camp) gay men, they have never been in the public eye and nor have they wanted to – and rightly so.
There are two direct social consequences to all this.
1. The prejudices towards gay people will (understandably) increase.
2. As you rightly said, acts of homophobia between members of the LGBT community themselves will be ‘justified’ ‘ghax Cyrus hekk ghamel u kwazi ma gralu xejn’.
This is a dangerous precedent and Cyrus must walk away from public life immediately.
As I’ve previously commented, individuals in the public service with a suspended prison sentence would have their contract terminated immediately. Has Cyrus Engerer been given the sack, this morning? The taxpaying public ought to know.
What Cyrus did was far more complicated than a ‘homophobic attack’ – it was “revenge porn” which goes down to being a character assassination and attempt to discredit a person in his work place.
Homophobic acts would be for example a direct verbal abuse. When you take intimate photos of a partner and deliberately send them out to your former partner`s boss and colleagues the intent is to have them fired, have them suffer economical loss (loss of job and being unable to find a new one), tarnish reputation or most likely drive them desperate to do something much more dramatic.
And some people would for example self harm. Homophobic is the last thing we can say about Cyrus here – it was a malicious attempt to hurt and degrade a person, which could turn very tragic.
[Daphne – I disagree with you, Malicia. He selected photographs designed to trigger homophobic disgust in the recipients. Your average person, man or woman, does not recoil at the sight of photographs of men in the nude, even if they are posing provocatively or engaged in sexual activity with a woman. But most do recoil, even if ever so slightly, at other sorts of photographs.]