Oriana Farrugia delivered an emotional speech at the closing of the Labour Party congress, sharing her personal journey while highlighting Malta’s progress in LGBTQ+ rights over the past decade.

In 2012, together with the Malta Gay Rights Movement, proposals for civil unions were presented to a Nationalist government. The response, Farrugia said, was clear, LGBTQ+ people would not be granted civil unions, would not be allowed to marry and could not form a recognised family.

At just 21 years old and studying at university, those words left a deep mark. It was a moment that made her realise that people like her were not being treated as equal citizens, with doors she had gotten used to being slammed shut once again in her face.

That reality also extended to family life, with same sex couples denied full parental recognition and legal protection.

Against that backdrop, the changes introduced after 2013 were described as transformative. Reforms including civil unions, marriage equality and access to IVF opened the way for couples to live openly and build a family.

Farrugia recalled following the historic civil unions vote from Australia, where she had moved on a scholarship, celebrating the moment despite the distance.

Years later, that journey led to a public proposal during EuroPride in Gozo and, more recently, the birth of a daughter, milestones that once felt out of reach.

Reflecting on that experience, Farrugia said the same doors that had once been shut in her face had now been opened wide open.

“Today, I proudly say I have a wife and a daughter,” she said.

She closed by explaining that she chose to speak for her daughter’s future, expressing hope that by 2050 she will look back and say her mother did everything possible for her to live in a more liberal and better Malta.