Lovin Malta spoke to Andre to hear more about this shocking ordeal, and get his thoughts on the matter.

“It feels downgrading and demoting to have people that shame you on your sexuality and send explicit pictures just to harass you for their ‘entertainment’,” Andre told Lovin Malta. 

“I just want to get on with my life and my business, instead of having to deal with hate on the daily,” he expressed.

Andre further elaborated on the detrimental effects that such insensitive comments can have on someone’s life and perspective, and how Malta still has a long way to go.

“It could ruin someone’s self-esteem, especially if they are finding a hard time coming out leaving no options for the person by staying closeted and living a lie, in some cases not handling the stress of it all which leads to a person to attempt suicide because society won’t let them live the way they would like to,” he explained.

“I do think Malta has a long way to go due to the fact that the way that we are a very chaotic country and tend to base everything on religion.”

“Although we do have rights written on paper,  I think that as a whole country it’s still finding it hard to adapt to accept people that identify with the LGBTIQ+ community because homophobic comments and gestures are still normality here,” he said.

This comes just mere days after the end of celebrations that took place during Malta’s Pride Week, with the commemorative month still being mid-way through.