Meet ARC's Pride Award Nominees: Part 1

Meet ARC's Pride Award Nominees: Part 1

Pride is very important at Mvintage. We celebrate equality, inclusivity, peace, and love. Everyone is part of our family no matter skin colour, ethnicity and sexuality. We recently launched our Pride pendant in collaboration with ARC Malta. ARC nominated eight people who work tirelessly to exert a positive influence on our society and raise awareness on several issues and struggles the LGBTIQ+ community faces in Malta as well as all over the world.

We are honoured to present our new Pride pendant to the below nominees! They each faced their own struggles and hardships in life but that never stopped them. They kept pushing and used their struggle to leave a positive impact on our society.

  • Gabi Calleja (she/her)

Gabi has been involved in advocacy work in support of the LGBTIQ+ community for close to 20 years. During the time she served as coordinator of the Malta Gay Rights Movement, she lobbied heavily for equality for the LGBTIQ+ community and to combat prejudice and discrimination in society. She is now head of the government’s unit that coordinates government policy in the field of LGBTIQ+ equality (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics Unit).

  • Neil Falzon (he/him)

Neil heads the human rights NGO aditus foundation and through his work, he has offered a great deal of legal support to LGBTIQ+ asylum seekers. Because LGBTIQ+ issues are still considered taboo in many migrant communities, Neil has crucially given voice to the plight of LGBTIQ+ asylum seekers, many of whom suffer violence, shame and exclusion, including here in Malta.

  • Leon Bonnici (he/him)

Leon uses social media platform TikTok to raise awareness about LGBTIQ+ issues and to showcase his life as a transgender man. Through his inspirational videos, including one particularly popular one about himself as a young girl who “had a dream… to be her true self” he managed to win over thousands of people. Rather than receiving hate, Leon’s posts are often flooded with positive feedback from his followers. To date, he has close to 7,200 followers and more than 90,000 likes on TikTok.

  • Moyra Sammut (she/her)

Moyra has long been a fighter for LGBTIQ+ rights especially in giving visibility to women, both within and outside of the community. Her various achievements throughout her journey, her commitment, motivation and dedication to the LGBTIQ+ cause is highly admirable. Having recently released her debut novel, A Map of Scars, Moyra became the first female Maltese author to publish an LGBTIQ+ novel internationally.

Everyone deserves love. Let us all support each other and make our community a positive one!

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