President of Malta Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca released a video featuring the struggles and joys of LGBTIQ families in her quest to foster a culture of inclusivity and respect in society.
The video, themed #OurChildrenAreAlright, turns the spotlight on five different families who have taken the difficult and brave decision to give up their privacy and share their realties with society.
Produced by the President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society, the video is intended to sensitise the public towards gradually changing their mentality and accepting that LGBTIQ families are no different than other heterosexual families. They face the same struggles as parents and children, but as a consequence of society’s prejudices their struggles become much harder.
“This groundbreaking video, produced by my Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society, highlights the importance of creating inclusive and safe spaces, for families of all kinds, within Maltese society”, President Coleiro Preca said.
“By showing the lived experiences of LGBTIQ families, we want to encourage and promote a culture of inclusion and respect. We want to contribute to a culture of positive peace, where the dignity of each and every person is truly safeguarded.”
“Thanks to this video, my Foundation has provided a platform to share and to celebrate the narratives of diverse people within Malta’s LGBTIQ community”, she added.
The video, produced by psychologist Cher V. Laurenti Engerer and supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is intended to help parents—LGBTIQ or heterosexual—to create an honest dialogue with their children.
Elaine Micallef, who led the project on behalf of the PFWS, said that as a mother of two living in a same-sex relationship, she was filled with hope that this video would reach its objectives, and raise awareness and understanding that LGBTIQ families were the same as any other family.
The objective of this video is to give a voice to LGBTIQ parents through a personalised narrative that the community can identify with.
The video is also intended to further address the violence, discrimination, bullying and ill-treatment of LGBTIQ people, especially children, and to promote tolerance and acceptance.
Malta may have made gigantic leaps in advancing the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer community, but society’s prejudices have been slower to change.
In fact, finding families to agree to take part in this campaign and give visibility to their lives was not easy. Initially, there were nine families from a much larger pool of people who chose to participate. However, four dropped out during the process, and of the five families who participated, two of them nearly cancelled at the last minute.
Some of the reasons for not taking part ranged from the fear of exposing their children to bullying, followed by the desire to keep out of the media since they wanted to pursue a career in public work and did not want to only be remembered for their sexual orientation.
“PFWS is so proud to have championed this important initiative, which highlights the lived experiences of LGBTIQ families. We hope this video will increase a sense of inclusion and participation among all families in the Maltese Islands,” PFWS Director General Dr Ruth Farrugia said.