{"id":16349,"date":"2023-02-23T09:23:12","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T08:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maltahumanist.org\/?p=16349"},"modified":"2023-02-23T09:23:12","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T08:23:12","slug":"freedom-of-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humanistsmalta.org\/mt\/prml\/2023\/uncategorized\/16349\/freedom-of-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom of Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

River of Love member Matthew Grech has been charged with breaching Malta\u2019s law banning gay conversion therapy by \u201cadvertising\u201d conversion practices. (The full transcript of the interview in question is at https:\/\/christianconcern.com\/news\/christian-charity-worker-prosecuted-for-conversion-therapy\/).<\/span><\/p>\n

Did he, though?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To be clear from the start, we fully support the ban on gay conversion therapy, and do not support Mr Grech\u2019s apparently favourable (if muddled) view of it. Nor do we agree that homosexual behaviour is in any way wrong. But he told his particular story, from his particular religious view. How can democracy work if we aren\u2019t exposed to views we don\u2019t share?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What does the law say?<\/b><\/p>\n

The Affirmation of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender Expression Act defines \u201cconversion practices\u201d as <\/span>\u201cany treatment, practice or sustained effort that aims to change, repress and, or eliminate a person\u2019s sexual orientation, gender identity and, or gender expression\u201d<\/span><\/i>. It narrows down the definition of conversion practices to, in summary, exclude genuine psychotherapeutic and healthcare services which don\u2019t treat any particular combination of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression as pathological.<\/span><\/p>\n

On advertising, the Act says <\/span>\u201cIt shall be unlawful for any person to advertise conversion practices\u201d<\/span><\/i>. (The Times of Malta recently reported that the law will be amended to redefine this clause <\/span>\u201cto include the publishing, advertising, displaying, distributing, referral and circulation of any material promoting the practice\u201d<\/span><\/i> https:\/\/timesofmalta.com\/articles\/view\/law-banning-gay-conversion-therapy-strengthened.1006708<\/span><\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

What did Mr Grech say?<\/b><\/p>\n

In his interview, Mr Grech describes as \u201canti-Christian\u201d the affirmation in the abstract to the Act that <\/span>\u201call persons have a sexual orientation, a gender identity and a gender expression, and that no particular combination of these three characteristics constitutes a disorder, disease, illness, deficiency, disability and, or shortcoming\u201d<\/span><\/i> – because <\/span>\u201cin the bible, homosexuality is a sin\u201d.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Grech believes in a heteronormative society <\/span>\u201cmarriage between one man and one woman is the norm and that it needs to be the common base of how we build society\u201d<\/span><\/i>. He claims people who say they’re gay may merely be experiencing passing feelings that anyone might have; that sexual attraction is only one piece of the puzzle (he speaks of \u201csoul attraction\u201d and \u201cspiritual attraction\u201d); that homosexuality may arise from trauma; and that it may be a result of upbringing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Grech says he is not in favour of <\/span>\u201charmful practices that were used in the past\u201d<\/span><\/i>, such as corrective rape, or being forced to look at perverse images. He says he is in favour of \u201ctalk therapy\u201d to explore the origins of one’s sexual desires <\/span>\u201cthey’re helping you better understand yourself, helping you understand that there can be a link between life experience and your desires and sexual behaviour\u201d.<\/span><\/i> This does not sound like a promotion of <\/span>conversion therapy; assistance in exploring the origins of one’s sexual feelings doesn\u2019t necessarily seek to change, repress or eliminate anything.<\/span><\/p>\n

Concluding thoughts<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI despise what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it\u201d<\/span><\/i>, attributed to Voltaire, is perhaps a clich\u00e9, but nonetheless encapsulates the concept of free speech, embedded in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention of Human Rights, and the Constitution of Malta. Of course, there are limits to free speech \u2013 national security, incitement and hate speech, unwarranted harm etc \u2013 but describing one\u2019s own personal experience and beliefs as one sees them seems to us to fall well within any such limits.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite our disagreements with Mr Grech, we cannot see any crime in stating publicly beliefs that being gay is wrong and that it may be possible to change one’s sexuality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

River of Love member Matthew Grech has been charged with breaching Malta\u2019s law banning gay conversion therapy by \u201cadvertising\u201d conversion practices. (The full transcript of the interview in question is at https:\/\/christianconcern.com\/news\/christian-charity-worker-prosecuted-for-conversion-therapy\/). Did he, though?\u00a0 To be clear from the start, we fully support the ban on gay conversion therapy, and do not support Mr […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFreedom of Speech | Humanists Malta<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/humanistsmalta.org\/mt\/prml\/2023\/uncategorized\/16349\/freedom-of-speech\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"mt_MT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Freedom of Speech | Humanists Malta\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"River of Love member Matthew Grech has been charged with breaching Malta\u2019s law banning gay conversion therapy by \u201cadvertising\u201d conversion practices. 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