Gender Identity, Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics Act

the simple principle of loving one’s neighbour and respecting that all people are born with equal dignity because of our common humanity.

Books that can confuse or manipulate children are not acceptable, neither is the early sexualisation of our children or teaching themes of an adult nature.

Section 6 of the Education Act is clear about the duty owed by educators and the state to parents: “It is the right of every parent of a minor to give his decision with regard to any matter concerning the education which a minor is to receive.” Section 6 is closely linked to our legal obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Protocol 1, Article 2 of the Convention states: “In the exercise of any functions which it assumes in relation to education and to teaching, the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching is in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.” It is, therefore, a legal requirement that schools in Malta respect and neither undermine nor interfere with, the ability of parents to bring up their children in accordance with their own religious or philosophical worldview. This same requirement, in nearly identical language, has also been ratified by Malta in no less than five other international treaties. It is precisely this obligation that schools violate when they seek to proselytise children in relation to sexual orientation and gender issues.

The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly held that “it is in the discharge of a natural duty towards their children – parents being primarily responsible for the ‘education and teaching’ of their children – that parents may require the State to respect their religious and philosophical convictions. Their right thus corresponds to a responsibility closely linked to the enjoyment and the exercise of the right to education.” The Court has also held that “a balance must be achieved which ensures the fair and proper treatment of minorities and avoids any abuse of a dominant position.” The Ministry for Education, as well as individual schools, being the organisers of the curriculum which children are to be taught, are therefore prohibited from abusing their dominant position to force onto pupils views and positions about sexuality, gender or family which parents may find harmful to the development of their children. To put this into Convention terms, every school in Malta is obligated to deliver an education which actively respects and compliments the ability of parents to raise their children in accordance with their own sincerely held values.

Again, as the Court has laid out: “The second sentence of Article 2 (P1-2) implies on the other hand that the State, in fulfilling the functions assumed by it in regard to education and teaching, must take care that information or knowledge included in the curriculum is conveyed in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner. The State is forbidden to pursue an aim of indoctrination that might be considered as not respecting parents’ religious and philosophical convictions. That is the limit that must not be exceeded.” Consistently exposing pupils, particularly young pupils, to LGBT campaigning materials would be the very definition of exceeding the aforementioned limit.

Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 does not permit a distinction to be drawn among subjects or school activities. It enjoins all schools in Malta to respect parents’ convictions, be they religious or philosophical, throughout the entire education programme. That duty is broad in its extent as it applies not only to the content of education and the manner of its provision but also to the performance of all the ‘functions’ assumed by a school. The verb ‘respect’ means more than ‘acknowledge’ or ‘take into account’. In addition to a primarily negative undertaking, it implies some positive obligation on the part of the school, as Section 6 of the Education Act reinforces, to ensure that parents’ wishes are duly taken into account.

We, the parents are within our rights not to accept such teaching which we deem as harmful and we strongly reject it.

This harmful and unacceptable indoctrination must therefore cease with immediate effect and in no way be imposed on our children. We therefore wish the Minister of Education and his officers to stop harassing decent, law-abiding parents and to assure us and confirm in writing that such teaching will not carry on any more. Most parents are not taken in by cheap propaganda and do not wish that gender indoctrination be imposed on their children via state schools. With this in mind, we are inviting parents to go to our Facebook page “Fight against Gender Indoctrination – Malta” where they can find a letter to sign and present to the heads of their school in order to demand that their children be removed from such lessons as per the parents’ Constitutional, Legal and Human Rights. Lessons that today are clearly going against our beliefs and are deemed by us to be harmful to our children.