Some people are venting their outrage over a photo showing the red half of the Maltese flag replaced with the rainbow colours symbolising the LGBTIQ community.

The photo was published by Minister for Equality Edward Zammit Lewis, and shows the Minister with Malta Gay Rights Movement president Gabi Calleja and Allied Rainbow Communities’ Clayton Mercieca.

Within hours of it being published, the photo drew some negative comments from people who felt like the flag was actually dispresctful to Malta.

“How dare you, who the hell do you think you are to meddle with my national flag?” one angry person commented on the minister’s photo.

“A flag is there to show where you’re from, or not your nationality,” another person added, with many echoing the call to “leave the Maltese flag alone”.

“I don’t have anything against these people, but as a Maltese person, this is an insult,” another comment read.

“Satan’s pawn pictured!” a particularly brash comment hit out, with another person adding, “Now go to Valletta to see them dancing in their underwear on floats and applause”.

Other comments included a question asking the Minister whether this meant he’s not Maltese anymore, while another said that “the Maltese flag is ridiculed”.

While there weren’t many outraged comments on Zammit Lewis’s actual post, they were enough to capture the attention of the media… prompting a reply from the NGOs involved

Following the outrage, Malta Pride posted that the group has “no intention of changing the Maltese National Flag and in no way we are vilifying it.”

“It’s a symbolic gesture to show Pride in MALTA’s progress to include everyone in its equality agenda,” Malta Pride continued.

What do make of this case?

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