Free Gender Reassignment Surgery Next On Our To-Do List, Robert Abela Promises
Fresh off the success of Malta’s Pride March, Prime Minister Robert Abela promised more reforms for the LGBTIQ+ community, including free gender reassignment surgery for trans people.
Abela said he personally attended the Pride March in Valletta last Saturday to convey a message that the government is committed to carrying out further reforms.
“I believe that social reform gives the Labour Party its identity,” he said on ONE Radio. “My presence yesterday, as well as that of ministers and MPs, symbolises the messages that whole we have done a lot, more is yet to come. While we’re proud of what we did, more needs to be done.”
Noting the recent lifting of a ban on gay men donating blood, the Prime Minister said the next step will be free gender reassignment surgeries, as promised in the PL’s manifesto.
“They will be placed on the national health service, which means the state will finance the procedure.”
Also on the government’s to-do list is the adoption of a five-year strategy for the LGBTIQ+ community and the establishment of a one-stop shop to centralise public and social services for members of the LGBTIQ+ community.
An estimated 12,000 people took to the streets of Valletta on Saturday to celebrate Pride March for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic and Abela compared the scenes to Malta’s first Pride March back in 2004.
“Only 75 to 100 people had attended the first Malta Pride March and this stayed consistent for a number of years. Back then, it was a protest against a number of issues that the government back then had swept under the rug but now it is a celebration of the progress of civil rights.”
Cover photo: Robert Abela at the Malta Pride March last weekend
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