Watch: Malta Decriminalised Gay Sex 50 Years Ago In ‘First Step’ For LGBTIQ+ Rights
As Malta prepares to host its first-ever EuroPride festival, it’s worth pausing to reflect how different things were 50 years ago.
Half a century ago, gay sex – described by law as “unnatural carnal connection” – was a crime, brutally punishable by up to two years of hard labour, with or without solitary confinement.
This law came into force during Britain’s occupation of Malta, reflecting the English ‘Buggery Act’, but sodomy had been illegal on the island since the days of the Knights of St John.
The crime only covered sexual acts by gay men, not lesbians, with LGBTIQ+ activist Eman Borg stating that women weren’t even considered to possess sexuality at the time.
Towards the end of 1972, the Labour government, back then led by Dom Mintoff, formally proposed the decriminalisation of sodomy.
However, it was resisted by the Nationalist opposition, led by Giorgio Borg Olivier, which warned it would threaten traditional families, as well as by the Church, which back then wielded significant political influence.
On 29th January 1973, Malta’s Parliament decriminalised same-sex sexual activity, with 28 MPs voting in favour and 26 MPs voting against it.
Borg, who wrote his Bachelor’s thesis on the vote, recently discussed this vote with Parliamentary Secretary for Equality Rebecca Buttigieg.
He said the government’s decision to propose the bill was particularly significant considering it wasn’t under any social or international pressure to repeal the sodomy law.
No NGOs were promoting LGBTIQ+ rights back then and the tightly-knit gay community was pushed underground.
“Back then, someone caught engaging in private sexual acts risked getting blackmailed and manipulated, but the Labour government of the time said that these people required help,” Borg said.
“The narrative was that these people shouldn’t be punished but instead be given the tools to reintegrate into society.”
Buttigieg said that although Malta has secured the top spot in European LGBTIQ+ rights rankings, it cannot afford to rest on its laurels.
“We are seeing the regression of civil rights in some EU and Commonwealth countries, which scares me a bit because it means we have to work harder for Malta to protect these rights. We can’t afford to regress.”
Cover photo: Left: EuroPride 2023, Right: LGBT+ activist Eman Borg
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