On Friday evening, June 27, 1969, the New York City tactical police force raided a popular Greenwich Village gay bar, the Stonewall Inn. Raids were not unusual in 1969; in fact, they were conducted regularly without much resistance. However, that night the street erupted into violent protest as the crowds in the bar fought back. The backlash and several nights of protest that followed have come to be known as the Stonewall Riots.

Prior to that summer there was little public expression of the lives and experiences of gays and lesbians. The Stonewall Riots marked the beginning of the gay liberation movement that has transformed the oppression of gays and lesbians into calls for pride and action. Since then, we have all been witness to a gradual flowering of gay culture that is slowly changing the world, forever.

This is what Pride March stands for! This is why Pride Marches take place every year, in an ever-increasing number of countries. Be part of it!

Pride March 2008: Saturday 12th July in Paceville! PHOTOS AVAILABLE for registered users! 

This year's Pride March - the 5th in a row - was different from previous editions. For the first time, it did not take place in Valletta but in Paceville. Why? Because apart from making a political statement, we wanted it to be a celebration of life, love and the people we are. The theme chosen for this year was hence 'Live, Love, Be' and the march was followed by a street party right in the middle of Malta's party zone: Paceville. Representatives of the three main political parties - Alternattiva Demokratika, the Malta Labour Party and the Nationalist Party - joined the march and addressed the crowd gathered for the street party. Following is the speech delivered by Gabi Calleja for MGRM.

"We have often been made to feel ashamed of our identities as lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans persons; made to believe that there was something wrong with us; made to think that we are a somewhat flawed version of a human being. Despite increasing awareness and a greater degree of acceptance, particularly among young people, so many of us continue to struggle with accepting ourselves, with coming out to our family, friends and colleagues. And so our theme this year – LIVE, LOVE, BE.

We want to urge you to LIVE your lives fully, free from fear of harassment and discrimination. We encourage you to rejoice in your relationships and to express your LOVE openly for it is what makes our lives worth living and what most distinguishes us as human beings. We ask you to BE who you are without shame despite the often negative labels society places on us.

I have this year been called a ‘gay rights fundamentalist’ by a reputable newspaper columnist so perhaps you should be wary of my next claim.

I tell you I already have the right to marry; I already have the right to found a family; I already have the right to be a parent; I already have the right to freedom from harassment and discrimination in all areas of life. I have these rights because they belong to all of us who form part of the human race. Nobody can take away these rights from me. To believe they could, is to think that I was a lesser form of human being. You may be more intelligent, more powerful, wiser, certainly more beautiful, richer, better educated, more talented but you cannot be more equal, for equality is our birthright as human beings.

So when the Malta Gay Rights Movements, among other things, requests of politicians that they grant legal recognition to same sex partnerships, what we are demanding is that we be allowed to exercise an already existing right. And every day that goes by without that legislation is a violation of that right.

When our judiciary earlier this year denied a woman the possibility of getting married simply because of her trans status, it violated her right as a human being. It is not I who have come to this conclusion, but the European Court of Human Rights. Each day our legislature fails to enact laws and policies that give access to adequate health care to trans persons and that facilitate their transition is a violation of their dignity as human beings.

Every time a young gay man or woman commits suicide because we fail to educate parents and children to understand and accept sexual minorities, we are failing as a society.

So I say shame on you. Shame on you for not recognising that we are all equal and that having to ask that our rights be recognised is in itself an infringement of our dignity as persons.

In October of 2009, the Malta Gay Rights Movement will host the International Lesbian and Gay Association’s European Region conference. It is for us an important and significant undertaking. Two hundred LGBT activists will visit Malta for five days for this annual gathering which takes place in different cities around Europe each year. We hope that it will serve as an impetus for our politicians to demonstrate that this country is respectful of all its citizens and is committed to equality by introducing much needed policies and laws and by endorsing the European Commission’s proposals for a new anti-discrimination directive in the provision of goods and services.

I would like to end by thanking all those who have been involved in the organisation of this Diverscity week which as you may imagine takes quite some doing and in particular all those who participated in the Pride March and the rest of this evening’s celebrations. Also the representatives from the political parties and other NGO’s, the MGRM volunteers and our partners this year, Klozet Club, QQ Events, Stanyer Creations, Underworld, Station 2 Station and SaModa. A big thank you also to our sponsors GO and Where’s Everybody. Good night."

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Pride March 2007

"We have been told not to make waves! To allow society to gradually evolve until it is willing to grant us equal citizenship. We should wait patiently, continue living with homophobia and heterosexism in our day-to-day lives, without making too much fuss. After all, the government and other institutions have many more pressing problems to deal with. Why should it matter so much if we are discriminated against? As Dr Josie Muscat has kindly told us, he has no problem with gay people working in his hospital, or gay and lesbian couples living together. He would probably not object if transsexuals undertook mastectomy’s or breast implants, at his clinic either – at a price of course! But families – those are for straight people.

We have been told that LGBT people who choose to act on their love, attraction and desires are not part of God’s plan for humanity. Homosexuality is flawed, sinful, intrinsically disordered. We cannot help it – but we should not act on it.

We have been told that homophobic bullying in schools is wrong – but there is no time or resources to address it. After all, schools have to do so much already.

We don't hear of gay bashings; we are allowed to hold Pride Marches; we have legislation to protect us from discrimination in employment; we know that the younger generation is more accepting of diverse sexual orientations and gender expressions and identities; more and more LGBT people are choosing to be out to their families, friends and colleagues; we have gay bars and gay parties where we can get together without fear and have a good time; we can meet with politicians, church leaders, government institutions, NGO's and talk about our issues; we hold workshops and training sessions, participate in national and international events; we have Maltese LGBTs on the International Lesbian and Gay Association’s European and World Boards and shortly a member of staff at ILGA-Europe. So what more do we want?

For some reason, what is so obvious to me seems to be incomprehensible to most people. We are fighting for rights we should not need to be fighting for. I want equality. I want justice. I want freedom from fear. I want to not have to think twice about whether to say partner or girlfriend. I want transsexuals to have the medical care they need without great personal cost. I want an educational system that is truly inclusive. I want the possibility to marry the person I love. I want to be able to share custody of any children me and my partner should choose to have. I want young LGBTs to have the support they need to come out. I want... the list is endless.

It is true that change is happening all around us as we speak. There will come a time when people will wonder why we had to go to so much trouble to attain all of these things. In the meantime it is not enough to wait patiently till society catches up with us. There are things we can be doing to make change happen. We can choose to be OUT and visible and difficult to ignore. We can use our vote wisely. We can educate our families and friends. We can insist with our government that we should not have to wait for a majority to agree before discrimination towards sexual minorities is addressed; that the state and all educational institutions have the duty and obligation to address injustices based on prejudice.

I urge all LGBT individuals to become involved in this struggle. We can make a difference. We are making a difference!" - Speech delivered by Gabi Calleja, Coordinator of the Malta Gay Rights Movement.

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Pride Marches 2004 - 2006

Watch this video, a collection of significant moments in the history of Malta's gay movement...