Malta Ranks No.1 in ILGA-Europe Rainbow Index
Malta continues to top the rankings (91%), having brought in equal marriage, a liberal new gender recognition law, a ban on gay ‘cure’ therapy and pioneering protections for intersex people.
The work of LGBTI activists and human rights defenders is never done – and Malta is a perfect of example. Despite the fact that the country maintained its place at the top of the Rainbow Europe law and policy ranking for IDAHOT 2017, there were still updates to legislation to come in the following months.
The most widely reported of these legal changes was arguably the vote in favour of marriage equality (almost unanimously) by parliament in July. This came into effect in September and marriages involving same-sex couples were being entered into the public registry by the end of the year. Another significant step was the Maltese government’s introduction of X gender markers on official documentation, introducing the possibility of gender-neutral markers for people’s passports and identity cards.
Read the full report here.