Gozo is a conservative island in Malta, and when I was 17, I was the first person to come out publicly as gay on the entire island. Coming out at a young age in a Catholic country is socially and religiously painful, and the hardest part was coming out to my mother. Her reaction was a mix of, “Are you sure?” “Don’t tell people!” and “We will figure it out.”
I had virtually no one to look up to, so I needed to create my own support system and learn how to go from a young man with spirituality as a main core drive to an activist with sexuality as an identity. In 2014, Malta made same-sex marriage legal. On TV in my bedroom, I witnessed my Maltese LGBTI counterparts on the main island celebrating civil union, while no celebration was held in Gozo. I could not celebrate who I was and there was no one to share my joy with. I thought, “I want to change this,” and so in 2015, I formed the LGBTI advocacy group LGBTI+ Gozo. And in 2017, my efforts were recognized by the Queen’s Young Leaders Programme. The award is as much as it’s mine as it’s also for every LGBTI person in Gozo. It is for all those who are marginalized and don’t have a space to voice their concerns. It is for us, the ones who sometimes feel not heard.
I only realized the extent of the bubble I was in, that my ideas were merely a reflection of past generations, when I won the Queen’s Young Leaders Award, and for the first time, I was exposed to different cultures and ideas. I had dinner with individuals of different faiths, a Muslim, an atheist, a Catholic, and myself, a confused spiritual struggling to find answers. Never in my life did I feel so much peace, having a truly honest conversation with friends, all sharing their experiences, all willing to teach and learn, and all ready to support each other! From then on, I decided to never give up. And if someone doesn’t accept me for my sexuality, I will sit down with them and have an open conversation about what they believe in.
Just as paintings of different artists from different nationalities can all be displayed in the same art gallery, different individuals with different beliefs can also live together, support one another, and help each other without expecting to get something back. This is my dream.