The picture promoting the Catholic rally. | Photo: Pro Malta Christiana/Facebook
Pro Malta Christiana, a radical religious group, will gather in Valletta a day before the annual Malta Pride festival.
The protest will be a ‘rosary rally for reparation against Malta Pride and the LGBT agenda’.
According to the event posted on the Facebook group, it will take place in the capital on 14 September in Parliament Square. The LGBTI festival, instead, will take to the streets on Saturday 15 September.
A rally against Malta Pride
Pro Malta Christiana describes itself as a group following the path of Plinio Correo de Oliviera, a late Brazilian Catholic activist. He had talked about homosexuality as ‘the number one enemy of the family’ in a 1992 interview with Brazilian newspaper O Globo.
Philip Beattie is in charge of the Facebook page for the group. The Catholic activist also spoke against marriage equality in 2017.
When the country was in the process of legalizing same-sex marriage, Beattie made local headlines for his homophobic remarks. He said the marriage equality law removed the basic concept of ‘natural marriage’ by attacking Maltese people’s fundamental values.
LGBTI rights in Malta
Malta is considerably more progressive in terms of LGBTI rights than other EU countries.
Same-sex marriage became legal in 2017, three years after the law legalizing civil unions. Same-sex couples are fully recognized and can adopt children.
Furthermore, there is a law protecting LGBTIs against all discrimination regarding sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.
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