All posts by General Mgrm

Malta LGBTIQ Rights Movement Calls on Maltese Government and Maltese MEPs to Support Transgender Rights in Slovakia

May 5, 2023
by General Mgrm

The Malta LGBTIQ Rights Movement (MGRM) alongside Allied Rainbow Communities, Drachma, LGBTI+ Gozo, Aditus, Checkpoint Malta, Moviment Graffitti and MMSA gathered in front of The Honorary Consulate of The Slovak Republic in Valletta on Thursday 4th May 2023 to show solidarity with the transgender community in Slovakia and to express concern about the proposed bill that would make legal gender recognition impossible in Slovakia. MGRM co-coordinator Cynthia Chircop spoke out against the bill, which would require transgender individuals to undergo a genetic test to prove that their gender was incorrectly determined at birth, a test that would be virtually impossible for most transgender individuals to pass.

Chircop emphasised that the proposed bill would not only deprive transgender people of the opportunity to have their gender identity recognized legally but also goes against the right to self-determination and international human rights law. “The intention of this law is clear; to dehumanise, oppress and erase the transgender community,” said Chircop. “It will increase the risk of bullying, discrimination and violence that they already face. Everyone should be treated equally in front of the law, regardless of their gender identity.”

MGRM called on the Maltese government to put pressure on the Slovak government to reject this bill. “Malta has been a leader in LGBTIQ rights in Europe with the most progressive laws protecting the LGBTIQ community for the past seven years,” said Chircop. “These laws and policies have allowed the transgender community in Malta to live their lives openly, access healthcare and support to affirm their identity, and contribute to society.”

Chircop also highlighted the negative consequences of anti-trans legislation and policies in countries like the US, Hungary, and Poland. “We know what hate and intolerance lead to; violence, erosion of democracy, and destruction. We need to take action today,” said Chircop.

MGRM invited Maltese MEPs and elected officials to take action to support transgender rights in Slovakia, including urging the Slovak government to withdraw the bill. “Being a passive bystander is being complicit to oppression, even if it’s not in our own country. Silence is not an option because transgender rights are human rights. And human rights belong to everyone,” said Chircop.

MGRM believes that the Maltese government, which is responsible for the world’s most progressive LGBTIQ laws, has an important story to tell about how Malta’s laws have led to a better quality of life for LGBTIQ people. By bringing forward tangible impacts that trans legislation in Malta has had on the LGBTIQ community, MEPs and the Maltese government can use their influence and legal powers to persuade the Slovak government to withdraw the bill.

MGRM and other LGBTIQ rights organisations will continue to monitor the situation in Slovakia and call for the protection of transgender rights.

“Will Grayson, Will Grayson” by John Green and David Levithan – Book Review

February 9, 2023
by General Mgrm

Review by Florence Vella

“ACTIVITIES: ought to involve sunglasses.” Well, that’s what it says on Will Grayson’s IM page. 

Will Grayson has three rules. Rule 1: Shut up 2: Don’t care too much 3: Never kiss a girl you like. Being prone to not following these rules, he reminds himself of them walking out the school doors swung open by the hip of his not-so-tiny friend Tiny. The brisk chill of Chicago slivering up the sleeve of his jacket after being sat for hours watching rehearsals for Tiny’s musical that he has to witness ever since Tiny roped him into joining the gay-straight alliance club. Tiny’s flamboyancy is typically a great deal of annoyance for Will, especially when it includes serenading him at his locker for the whole hall to hear or when he sets him up with Jane – the “straight” side of the gay-straight alliance… though he might have been right in the end about that one.

In the meantime, Will Grayson, a self-identified depressive fuck up who runs on coffee he stole off his friend Maura, sits at his computer in his room in the suburbs waiting for a very specific person to go online. Will doesn’t get excited about much, yet when the clock on the classroom wall strikes 2pm, he lets himself be hopeful that the school day is coming to an end, nearing him closer to his only solace, Isaac. Will only knows Isaac though IM – messaging in spurts between Isaac using the computer at the music shop he works at and late into the night. Admittedly, he’s fallen for Isaac, which brings me to the one rule that Will Grayson has: Never wish for things. A rule learnt soon after his dad left when he was a kid. His only exception to this rule is his wish to meet Isaac face to face. 

Then one cold night, when Will finds himself in a most unlikely corner of Chicago after being left by his friends for a concert he couldn’t get into, he crosses paths with a stranger brimming with the nerves of supposedly finally meeting the person he’s fallen for.

Told in alternating voices from two award-winning authors, John Green and David Levithan, this unique collaboration features two teens with the same name unbeknownst to the other’s existence who soon find their lives going in unexpected directions. 

Each alternate chapter is either written from the perspective of either Will Grayson, or will grayson, defined by the latter Grayson having no capitalisation throughout the entire chapter, easily keeping the reader knowing from who’s perspective it is they’re reading.

Included in the pages are some very gay lyrics from Tiny’s musical and thoughts of the teens that will make you, quite literally, laugh out loud. 

Culminating humour, and the most fabulous musical ever to grace the high-school stage told in a lively and light-hearted manner, this novel is surely an interesting adventure to read.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is available to loan at our Rainbow Library. Open every Tuesday & Thursday from 3-6pm excluding public holidays.

Under the Udala Trees – Chinelo Okparanta (book review)

November 1, 2022
by General Mgrm

Review by Florence Vella

“If I had not met Amina, who knows, there might be no story to tell”.

In the midst of the 1968 civil war in Ojoto, Nigeria, sits a two-story yellow house guarded by thickets of rose and hibiscus. The roofs of the house covered with palm fronds for camouflage. This was Ijeoma’s home.

It had become routine for them now, emerging from the bunker behind their house once the bomber engines had passed. Walking over fallen tree branches, pieces of zinc and toppled roofs. Only one day, Ijeoma and her mother walked back into their home, over shattered glass, to a sight they will never forget.

Ijeoma stops in her tracks one afternoon under the Udala tree after noticing that she’s being followed by a girl on her way back home from the shop. Amina being a Hausa, the mortal enemies of Igbo’s, the two should be enemies, however, they swiftly become friends. They’d bath out by the tap under the vast night sky together, both of them looking into each other’s faces amongst the grasshoppers hopping, fireflies buzzing, crickets singing their songs, and leaves rustling in the breeze.

Questions like floating bubbles formed in Ijeoma’s head. While everyone at church on Sundays nodded, cried “Amen”, and clapped after everything Father Godfrey said, she would look around, confused as to why no one would ask him to explain anything.

What if Bible stories were just allegories? she thought. Just because one type of event was documented in the Bible, it doesn’t mean all other possibilities were forbidden.

She would rise from her bed and kneel by its edge at night, asking God to help her turn her thoughts away from Amina, to turn her instead onto the path of righteousness. Using prayer as a method of dousing her desires.

Self-purification was now the goal.

As time did what time does, no matter how much we try to go against the truth about who we are, it creeps out in the end. So, when one afternoon, a woman came into her mother’s shop with lingering eyes, Ijeoma could not resist the community she never knew existed. A church converted at night time… soon hiding in a bunker once again. Stood quietly, breathes hushed, but this time they’re not hiding from bombs.

This novel by Nigerian-American author Chinelo Okparanta, set between the 1960s till the late 70’s, is divided into six parts. It follows the story of Ijeoma, a girl growing up in war-torn Nigeria who must come to terms with her sexuality and the conflict this presents in society.

Okparanta’s storytelling is rich and colourful. The story is truly alive and blooming, short of a heartbeat. As she describes the tale of events – some haunting, other’s bountiful with raw beauty, her writing is other-worldly. Think late-night campfire stories with the characters’ voice and image vivid in your mind. Parts will break your heart, other’s will make you want to scream at the top of your lungs, and then, just when you think it’s end, she gives you everything you’ve wanted from the start.

Reading this novel is like the blooming of the brightest yellow flower through all its stages translated into words for us to read.

The book is available, amongst hundred others, at our Rainbow Library, open 3pm-6pm on Tuesdays and Thursday (excluding public holidays). Become a member here. 

Interested in joining our monthly book club? Click here for more information.

Tell The Wolves I’m Home – Carol Rifka Brunt (book review)

September 28, 2022
by General Mgrm

Review by Florence Vella

A captivating read of grief, love, and growing up set in New York during the 1980s AIDS epidemic.

There is only one person who 14-year-old June Elbus – an observant, medieval-era enthusiast – feels understands her, her uncle and renowned painter, Finn. Not knowing which Sunday will be the last as her uncle grows more ill with AIDS, she treasures the moments spent in his apartment watching him paint a portrait of her and Greta, her older sister. Savouring the smell of lavender and orange in the air, all the while unaware of the hidden secrets right in front of her very eyes. 

June was always the first to arrive home from school, even after her routine course through the woods. With her sister rehearsing for the play and her parents working late during tax season, she’d gotten used to the quiet solitary. Though one afternoon, the phone rings. A man she’s never heard before with a British accent speaks on the other end, telling her that Finn has passed.

Through family secrets, sneaking away on train rides to the city, unlikely friends and mystery letters, June learns that the ones you love are shaped by other people in ways you never knew. 

This poignant tale told through the lens of 14-year-old June as she narrates life before and after her gay uncle’s death far exceeds the average coming-of-age plot.

Brunt’s prose is simple and unadorned, yet undoubtedly engrossing and full of hidden gems. Think romantic with an idealist streak. The plot effortlessly carries the reader through real-time events and recalls memories so wholly that you find yourself grieving alongside the characters.

The written unfiltered thoughts of the protagonist throughout the chapters are full of intricacies and description, and make a large part of what makes this novel a unique experience to read. She takes the reader along through emotionally-charged decisions, unsettling thoughts, loneliness, and love in a compelling way. Strings you didn’t even notice were there pull together and play out as a satisfying chord. 

Indulging the reader in what is loved from a classic coming-of-age story – first loves, sibling bonds, and the turmoil that comes with acceptance – topped off with distinctively clever twists makes this a novel truly unlike any other in its genre.

The book is available, amongst hundred others, at our Rainbow Library, open 3pm-6pm on Tuesdays and Thursday (excluding public holidays). Become a member here. 

Call for Curator – Katya

March 18, 2022
by General Mgrm

 

Alongside a publication, this year we will be celebrating Katya Saunders’ life through an exhibition, visualizing her story through her fashion, photographs and mementos.

 

Being one of the first trans women in Malta, Katya Saunders was a trailblazer and an icon for Malta’s LGBTIQ+ movement. Katya was better known for her iconic fashion, modelling experience and cabaret performances but when she passed away in 2019, it quickly emerged there was more than meets the eye.In absence of voluntary organisations, and at a time when trans identities remained controversial, Katya quickly created her own support system, sheltering friends and young people who became homeless. Through her actions, her friends insist that Katya metaphorically laid down the red carpet for today’s LGBTIQ scene, to be able to safely come out and live their lives.

MGRM has also secured the support of Katya’s friends and family, which will give this project a complete picture.

Aims of the project

The exhibition aims to celebrate and immortalise Katya’s life and fashion, whilst unveiling the story of an important figure in local LGBTIQ history. Friends and family of Katya donated her belongings to MGRM, including photographs, several gowns, jewellery, shoes, and accessories. While doing so, the exhibition will also highlight the impact she left on the local LGBTIQ+ community.

Terms of Reference

– To determine, after consulting the MGRM’s team, the content and form of the exhibition.

– To collect and gather material from Katya’s loved ones, and suggest new content when needed.

– To work closely with the author of the publication, and any videographer or photographer, in order to strengthen the curatorial concept, interlinking both aspects of the project.

– To bear in mind the context of the exhibition and where it is to be held.

– Coordinate with MGRM’s team and provide critical input to the exhibition project as well as collect key information and media materials.

– Attend openings and assist with set up/takedown, greet visitors, and communicate about the exhibition.

– Attend discussions/talks in order to bring more online visibility to the exhibition

– In this and all of its projects, MGRM prioritises sustainability and would request that choices and decisions made are not detrimental to the environment.

Eligibility Criteria

Bidders must submit a CV, a quotation, and portfolio with relevant curatorial experience while also demonstrating the ability to produce the work being contracted to the high quality being sought.

Selection Criteria

–       Quality of Portfolio presented

–       Knowledge of LGBTIQ issues and LGBTIQ affirmative approach

–       Technical and Financial Bid

Budget

Maximum funding available is of Eur 1,000 inclusive of VAT.

Intellectual Property

All intellectual property rights belong to MGRM, and the respective donors of Katya Saunders’ materials.

Subcontracting

Individuals may propose working jointly with one or more persons given the tight deadlines envisaged. This must be clearly stated in their submission. Bidders are to attach CV’s of each expert.

Following the adjudication, any subcontracting to third parties other than the selected service provider/s needs to be approved in writing by MGRM other than for technical elements such as translations or proof reading.

Bids are to be sent to MGRM on mgrm@maltagayrights.org. For any queries, please contact Robert Attardon +356 99255559. Deadline is 1st April 2022.

Timeline

Call Deadline Application

1st April 2022

Contract of selected service provider

8th April 2022

Provisional Timeline

Gathering data and merging of data

29th April 2022

Presentation ideas of a possible artistic concept for the exhibition

6th May 2022

Final draft/ decision of the artistic concept

17th June 2022

Selection of resources

8th July 2022

Printing and framing

5th August 2022

Exhibition set up

30 – 31st August 2022

Exhibition

2nd – 11th September 2022

This project has been funded through the Voluntary Organisations Project Scheme managed by the Malta Council for the Voluntary Sector.

2022 Electoral Manifestos – LGBTIQ Proposals

March 14, 2022
by General Mgrm

As LGBTIQ persons, we are defined by more than our sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics. Being an LGBTIQ organisation, we sought to highlight those proposals made by all parties* in their electoral manifestos which directly impact LGBTIQ rights, or which formed part of the Coalition’s Election Proposals.

This document emphasises proposals made, and is not an endorsement of any political party.

Finally, we feel that casting our vote in general elections brings our year-round activism to a full circle. We urge you to do the same.

You can download the document by clicking here.

*Other parties whose mission fundamentally differs from MGRM’s are not included in this document.

Call for Author

March 1, 2022
by General Mgrm

Following last year’s exhibition “20 Years of Trailblazing”, we will be celebrating Katya Saunders through a biographical publication with photographical inserts that aims to provide the reader with detail about the late Katya’s life.

Katya Saunders was a trailblazer and an icon for Malta’s LGBTIQ+ movement. One of the first trans women in Malta, Katya was known for her iconic fashion, modelling experience and cabaret performances. When she passed away in 2019, it quickly emerged there was more than meets the eye.

In absence of voluntary organisations, and at a time when trans identities remained controversial, Katya quickly created her own support system, sheltering friends and young people who became homeless. Through her actions, her friends insist that Katya metaphorically laid down the red carpet for today’s LGBTIQ scene, to be able to safely come out and live their lives.

MGRM has also secured the support of Katya’s friends and family, which will give this project a complete picture. Together with friends and family, MGRM will be able to point the author towards the right people who hold key information about Katya and details of her life.

The publication will be launched alongside an exhibition featuring her photographs, garments and jewellery.

Terms of Reference

  • To determine, after consulting the MGRM’s team, the content and form of the book.
  • To hold interviews with people who knew Katya and suggest new content when needed.
  • To bear in mind the context of the book.
  • Coordinate with MGRM’s team and provide critical input to the book as well as collect key information and media materials.
  • The creative liberty of the author will be respective.

Eligibility Criteria

Bidders must submit a CV and portfolio with relevant experience in writing and/or journalism while also demonstrating the ability to produce the work being contracted to the high quality being sought.

MGRM will be looking to understand the sensitivity of the author around the lived experience of minority groups in Malta.

Selection Criteria

  • Quality of portfolio presented;
  • Knowledge of LGBTIQ issues and LGBTIQ affirmative approach
  • Technical and Financial Bid.

Budget

Maximum funding available is €4,000 inclusive of VAT.

Intellectual Property

All intellectual property rights belong to MGRM.

Subcontracting

Individuals may propose working jointly with one or more persons given the tight deadlines envisaged. This must be clearly stated in their submission. Bidders are to attach CV’s of each expert.
Following the adjudication, any subcontracting to third parties other than the selected service provider/s needs to be approved in writing by MGRM other than for technical elements such as translations or proof reading.

Bids are to be sent to MGRM on mgrm@maltagayrights.org. For any queries, please contact Robert Attard on +356 99255559. Deadline is 15th March 2022.

Timeline

Call Application Deadline 15th March
Contracting of selected author 22nd `March
Gathering qualitative & quantitative data 17th June
Final Draft 9th September
Proofreading 21st October
Printing 11th November
Book Launch 9th December
 
 
This project has been funded through the Voluntary Organisations Project Scheme managed by the Malta Council for the Voluntary Sector supported by the Ministry for Inclusion, Voluntary Organisations and Consumer Rights (MIVC)
 

LGBTIQ+ Youth Packs: Activities for youths

February 24, 2022
by General Mgrm

In the past years, MGRM has agreed with Aġenzija Żgħażagħ, the national Youth Agency, to provide support and financial resources for the Rainbow Support Services Youth Group. For many LGBTIQ+ young people, this group is the first place they truly feel they can be themselves. This in itself is no
small achievement however LGBTIQ+ youth groups are, of course, much more than this. Together, various professionals and LGBTIQ+ young people play a major role in tackling discrimination and changing the hearts and minds of others in society.

As such, MGRM and Aġenzija Żgħażagħ have developed this interactive and educational pack filled with various activities aimed at educating young people across Malta and Gozo. This step-by-step youth pack will help various professionals to deliver a session  of choice aimed towards addressing everyday issues experienced by many LGBTIQ+ individuals. The main objective is to raise awareness and bring about social change.

There are 5 activities.

  1. Fantasy Trip
  2. Sexual Orientation Fantasy Trip
  3. LGBTIQ Acronyms
  4. Gender Bread Person
  5. LGBTIQ Timeline

Fantasy Trip: This fantasy trip will give the participants a chance to feel what it’s like to be born in a body that may not fit their gender identity – assuming that the listeners are not trans.

Sexual Orientation Fantasy Trip: This fantasy trip will give participants a chance to feel what it’s like to be hated and excluded because of their sexual orientation – assuming that the listeners are heterosexual.

LGBTIQ Acronyms: The goal of vocabulary isn’t to read definitions for every word but to allow your participants to highlight the words that they are most interested in learning about, and to clarify those words.

Gender Bread Person: To enable participants to understand the difference between gender identity, biological sex, and sexual orientation

LGBTIQ Timeline: The main aim for this activity is for participants to learn
about some of the main historical events that occurred in LGBTIQ+ history. This will give participants a better understanding of LGBTIQ+ culture and why activism is still important.

Order Youth Pack