[WATCH] Alex Caruana: ‘Why don’t we talk about LGBT children?’

Long-time LGBTIQ activist Alex Caruana describes the case of a couple who wanted to change their son’s teacher because he’s gay as “mind-blowing.” 

The apparent ease by which the parents wanted to change their son’s teacher, based solely on a rainbow badge, is worrying, he says.  

Despite this, Caruana tells me the positive side of the whole incident is the widespread discussion on discrimination that followed. 

Speaking about the rapid societal change that took place in Malta during the past decade, he explains that people are slowly catching up with the transformation brought about by several legal developments such as marriage equality for all. 

When challenged on whether political symbols such as the rainbow flag are appropriate in classroom settings, Caruana says many items and school illustrations (such as drawings of children with different skin colours) are political symbols. He says that if a political symbol synonymous with LGBTIQ acceptance is an issue, that says more about the person who is objecting rather than the symbol itself. 

Addressing a recent controversy surrounding last year’s Europride celebration in Valletta, which exceeded its budget, Caruana insists the government should be as transparent with taxpayer funds as NGOs such MGRM are with their own budgets. 

The following is an excerpt of the interview. The interview was carried out before news arrived that the parents had withdrawn their objection. 

The full interview can also be viewed on Facebook and Spotify.   

We’ve just seen the case of parents who wanted to move their children from their school because one of the children’s teachers is gay. We’ve seen plenty of reactions, and your organisation, MGRM has described the case as worrisome. First of all, why is it worrisome? 

There are many levels that we’re worried about. First of all, the children weren’t even in the teacher’s class. Stefan, the teacher in question, wrote that the boy was going to start attending his class from Monday, so the teacher never met the children or the parents. 

So, these parents based their opinion of this teacher on a rainbow badge on his bag. It could have been a straight teacher with the same badge. How can we say we tolerate everyone if we judge the teacher on anything other than his competence as a teacher? 

Stefan said he has been a teacher for 10 years and in 10 years he’s never had any complaints. In 2025, we’ve screened someone on the basis of a rainbow flag: We said, “he’s gay. I don’t want my children with him.” Wow! 

It’s worrying for me because if these parents don’t want their children in a class where the teacher is gay, what happens if their kids are LGBT? Will they kick them out of their home? Will they beat them or abuse them? [...] 

In MGRM’s statement, the headmaster and the school were both praised but you noted that their reaction is not guaranteed. You said that other people can still be discriminated because of their identity. How prevalent is this situation? 

The situation could have gone a number of ways. The headmaster could have told the teacher to get rid of the bag and not cause trouble. I know what people say about ‘the gay agenda’. What agenda? To have children know that their teachers are different? What kind of agenda is that? [...] 

Studies show that when there is at least one person in a school with a rainbow flag, LGBTIQ people feel safer because they know that if something happens, there’s one person in the school that they can talk to. People say that [the rainbow flag] is political. It is the politics of human rights.  

Are we going to remove all political symbols from classrooms and make them sterile? Society isn’t sterile. Once you go outside the door, you’re going to find all sorts of people. 

As you’ve said, this issue started because of a bag featuring the rainbow flag. I’m going to play devil’s advocate… are political symbols like this fitting for classroom settings? 

It’s a political symbol depending on how you look at it. For me it’s a human rights symbol. You can ask: ‘Should we include images of black children in school books? Why don’t we have them all white with blue eyes?’ Isn’t that a form of accepting everyone, a political symbol? Human rights do include a political stance. 

Will we show children of a certain weight? Will we depict a person using a wheelchair? That’s also political. Today we’ve accepted that we have children with different religions and skin colours, children with disabilities, but when it comes to LGBT, everyone is defensive. 

If we don’t want children with autism to be discriminated against, but why don’t people talk about LGBTIQ children? Because people, or let me clarify, adults, feel uncomfortable. So, we try to feed children the idea that homosexuality is contagious. It doesn’t work that way. 

One point that came up in the public discussion is the parents’ right to choose their children’s teacher. Is the parents’ right to choose in conflict with the teacher’s right to do his job? Where does the line end? 

Where does it end? ‘Are you divorced or not? Are you a single mother or single father? Sorry you’re too fat or too thin.’ Is that how we’re choosing teachers? Are we going to profile them? It makes no sense. Teachers went to university, graduated, and are professional people. That’s where it should end, on their competence. 

If you have an issue because the teacher is giving the children too much homework, you go and you talk to them, but the issue shouldn’t be on, for instance, because the teacher is foreign. If the children are spending that much time with teachers, hopefully the parents are concerned with whether or not the teacher is good at their job. 

This case was really mind-blowing for me because they didn’t even meet the teacher. 

You’ve spoken about the laws in Malta. Along the years, Malta saw vast changes in this regard, but cases like these still exist. Laws alone won’t cut it, so what exactly needs to change? 

I don’t agree that laws don’t change anything. Malta is a good example where laws changed society. Society was almost ready, but the laws gave the justification for a section of the population that was hidden to get the courage to say, ‘The state is recognising me.’ Slowly we started to see people coming out, saying, ‘I’m gay, I’m 50 years old. It’s about time I tell my family.’ And people started coming out. 

I think that first came the laws, then LGBTIQ people started coming out, and I think that now we’re in the final stage where people start to catch up with this rapid change. I understand that not everyone’s ready to change, so it’s a question of time for people to get used to the fact that these are normal things. 

You go to hospital and your doctor is gay. You find a trans psychologist. It’s part of life as it’s a part of us learning to live with people who are different. From our part, LGBTIQ people should be courageous enough to live a normal life. We work 40 hours a week, we pay our taxes, we go to school. It’s a totally normal life. [...]