#YouAreIncluded - Allied Rainbow Communities launches Malta Pride Week 2021

Allied Rainbow Communities, a voluntary organisation and organisers of the yearly Malta Pride have made a comeback this year whilst respecting COVID restrictions. Despite the Pride March being cancelled, as it generally attracts thousands of people in the streets of the Capital, the organisers together with a number of other entities have come together to put up a packed programme of events that celebrate inclusion & diversity, highlights issues that are pertinent to the community and with many opportunities for connecting once again.

COVID19 has left a negative impact on minority groups including the LGBTIQ Community. Throughout the pandemic, ARC, together with other LGBTIQ NGOs, supported numerous individuals that were facing homelessness, low income situations due to redundancy, lack of HIV medication availability and social isolation.

Malta Pride’s theme for this year will be #YouAreIncluded. The theme reminds us that ensuring Equality for everyone is not a one-size-fits-all approach and that while much has been achieved by the LGBTIQ movement and we are more visible in all sectors of society, there are still members of our communities whose identities and experiences are not understood, seen, or validated.

As one can see from the calendar of events, activities will range from an Exhibitions of works by Internation & Local Queer Artists at Spazju Kreattiv, called REFRACTION, which will run for 6 weeks under the curatorship of Bobb Attard in collaboration with the Soura Film Fest (Berlin) starting from the 10th September.

MGRM will also be hosting a week-long exhibition displaying artefacts, memorabilia and elements of its history at DESKO, Valletta as this year the Malta LGBTIQ Rights Movement celebrates 20 years of activism, including personal items that were in possession of the late trans model Katya Saunders.

This year is a special year for LGBTI+ Gozo as the Ministry for Gozo will be supporting this NGO with the opening of an office in Victoria and an inauguration will be held.

Despite the cancelling of the Pride March, a symbolic representation will be held with a 25m pride flag, belonging to ARC, in 6 different localities around Malta & Gozo on Saturday 11th September. This is being done with the collaboration of the Ministry for Equality, Research & Innovation.

Various workships and community discussions will be held throughout the week hosted by various speaker that will cover topics such as Queerness in the Home by anthropologist Rachael Scicluna, Intersectionality by the feminist platform Ghajjejt u Xbajt, a medical and personal take on HIV by Checkpoint Malta and a faith-based discussion by Drachma.

A Human Rights conference entitled On the Margins: Threats to LGBTIQ Inclusion - Human Rights Conference, hosted by the SOGIGESC Unit within the Human Rights Directorate will be streamed online.

Opportunities for socialisation and community gatherings in the evenings will be aplenty, all within COVID regulations and held in different establishments.

The pinnacle of this year’s Malta Pride will be a concert featuring a variety of performing acts, speeches from activists and a full-on drag pageant and competition on Saturday 18th September at Argotti Gardens, Floriana. This event will be seated and with tickets limited to an audience of 500 people however, thanks with the support of sponsors, this event will be live-streamed via the Malta Pride facebook page.

Malta Pride this year is being held in collaboration with HSBC, with the support of the Ministry for Equality, Research and Innovation, Pokerstars, Spazju Kreattiv, Kinnie, Absolut, 89.7 Bay, Deloitte, Casumo, Carisma Collections, Boston Link, MVintage Jewellery, William Hill International, and the Kottonera Foundation.

All information can be retrieved from the Malta Pride official website www.maltapride.org