Conversion therapy lawfare claims its first victim with Maltese police criminally charging a former homosexual under Malta’s 2016 “conversion therapy” laws.
Summoned by police in June 2022, Matthew Grech is accused of ‘advertising conversion practices, and breaking article 3, chapter 567 of Maltese laws,’ after sharing his ex-gay testimony in an interview with free speech media, PM News in April 2022. The event had been advertised on Facebook.
Malta’s 3-page 2016 “Conversion Therapy” law (PDF) defines “conversion practices” as “any treatment, practice or sustained effort that aims to change, repress and, or eliminate a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity and, or gender expression.”
Any person found guilty of breaching Malta’s LGBT protection clause faces up to EUR €5,000 in fines, and five months in gaol.
This increases to EUR €10,000 and one year in prison if ‘any professional is found guilty’ of breaking the law.
The 33-year-old LGBT leaver will ‘appear before the Magistrate on 3rd February, to face a Criminal Judiciary Court.’ (PDF of summons).
Grech, a trustee of Core-Issues, a Christian ministry leading the way in providing a home for former members of the LGBT lifestyle said he’s being ‘aggressively targeted.’
In a statement shared online, Grech argued: “I have the names of the individuals who reported me to the police. I believe they are the same people who publicly clashed with me before, who have jobs with the Maltese government, and are also linked with the Malta Gay Rights Movement.”
He then offered up reasoning for why the group is throwing Article 3 at him: “They are afraid of the gospel message we preach that offers change and transformation. It simply tears down all the LGBT lies.”
Resolute, Grech added, by defending himself, he was defending all Christians, and “people of good will who care about human rights, no matter what opinion they might hold.”
“God is on our side,” he noted, “Victory belongs to the righteous, and we will not bow down to tyranny.”
Grech’s defiance is as strong as his defence.
His lawyers argue, “At no point during the PMNews Malta programme did Mr Grech invite any listener to attend therapy or encourage anyone to get help for unwanted same-sex attraction.”
Christian Concern – part of the civil rights group representing the case – also explained that two journalists were facing similar charges.
The group rightly described Grech’s case as one of ‘international significance.’
Its outcome lays the ground for responses to similar loosely defined “conversion therapy” bans implemented in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
To add, writes Grech’s legal advocates, “The LGBT lobby, has struggled to define what the imposed term ‘conversion therapy’ is. No evidence has been provided to justify the bans, but instead, the aggressive campaigning is aimed at criminalising Christian beliefs on human sexuality and silencing any opposition.”
There’s little room for anyone to accuse CC of overstating this point.
Malta’s first test of Article 3:567 is an example of “born-this-way” belligerents bullying born again believers.
It’s a test to see how these vague, badly constructed laws will impact individuals, groups, and the fundamental rights of others, such as the right to speak truth freely, without fear of repression.
Such laws, writes Christian Concern, are easily abused.
They provide hate-filled LGBT activists, and advocates, a legal, and political platform from which they can punish dissidents, by reducing any ‘debate surrounding LGBT lifestyles, to a criminal offence.’
Those targeted are people who hold to hard-science biological facts, which strongly support ‘Christian beliefs on marriage and human identity.’
As the X-Out-Loud leader among LGBT leavers warned: “LGBT activists will use this ban to Target churches to Target Christians and Believers in all communities. It’s not just about what the law says in writing it’s about how it will be used and how it will be interpreted by activists to come against individuals.”
Furthermore, the LGBT lobbyist’s apparent vindictive use of Article 3:567, reveals the oppressive side of these so-called “conversion therapy” bans.
There’s an unavoidable irony in a former homosexual being the first victim of the globalised push for poorly defined, arbitrary LGBT lawfare.
Ultimately, these laws are designed to make falsehoods sacred, and legally stop people from voluntarily leaving the LGBT cult.
People can check-in, but they’ll never be allowed to leave.
