The first time I was introduced to the concept of what it meant to be 'gay' still rings clear in my head. I remember knowing that my mother's male friend had a boyfriend, and I didn't question it being a child of around maybe 7 years of age. Once I heard my father speaking about how relations between this friend and his father weren't great and I asked him why, and the conversation went something like this:
Me: Why do <name> and his father not speak?
Dad: Because ever since he told him that he likes men, they had a fight and it's been difficult.
Me: But why?
Dad: Because even though there's nothing wrong with it, it's still very difficult for a father to know that his son is gay.
Me: But why?
This is where the conversation trailed off and, to be honest, I still feel the same kind of incapability to understand why it should be an issue for parents, let alone the general public, who a man or a woman feels attracted to.
Today Malta stands to be even higher in first place on the Rainbow Europe Index, on which it is already first place by over 10%. The legislation of gay marriage, rather than civil union, is a further step in recognising that love is not wrong. This has also been recognised fully or in part in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the UK, the US and Uruguay. Not to mention progress made in Taiwan and Germany with even Israel and Armenia recognising gay marriage for official purposes.
When it comes to religious freedom, it is very normal to find people citing their beliefs as reasons for not allowing gay marriage legislation to be enacted, which is all well and good, unless they actually think that their personal beliefs are grounds to impinge on personal liberties. It's fine to disagree with something and offer reasons why you will never participate in or agree with it, but that does not remove the need for legislation to protect the people who will make use of it. I doubt there is any single person on earth who enjoys getting parking tickets, but that doesn't mean that due to public annoyance, traffic laws must be suspended to appease the few who think they're morally wrong.
The UK just had it's first gay Muslim wedding, which is a huge milestone in religious evolution. Malta's gay Catholic group, Drachma, is another trailblazer in pointing out that religion and sexual orientation need not be at loggerheads because, essentially, they have absolutely nothing to do with each other. There are no grounds for a religious belief to dictate who individuals can or cannot feel attracted to. In fact, one of the greatest decisions the Maltese Parliament has taken in the last decade, in my opinion, was to make Gay Conversion Therapy illegal. This practise which still goes on in some countries is inhumane, criminal, and comparable only to snake-oil salesmen promising cures for things that need not and definitely cannot be 'cured'. Even writing that made me wretch internally.
We live in a world which rejects humanity for the sake of personal belief. We live in a world where people feel like they are entitled to legislative power because of things they believe in purely due to being born into a culture which told them to. We live in a horrible world. Legislation like what is about to be passed is another small step into making this world a little less horrible, both for people who have been given the short end of the stick because they don't love who the masses deem is fit for them to love, and for humanity in general.
Marriage is a human construct, it is not a divine right, it is not an absolute, it is a human custom cultivated and distorted through the ages. Let it once more evolve to show what it means to be human. What it means to love and express love openly and freely without being demonised.
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