Cyrus Engerer is not gay

I don't know enough about Cyrus Engerer to pass final judgement on his mettle as a politician. During the referendum campaign I was struck by his calm determination and courage. He not only made his unwavering pro-divorce voice heard in his anti-divorce party, but also co-founded a movement, Stand Up, to promote his views.

He has another attractive virtue. Openly gay, he does not project his political positions as mere extension of the ones he takes in the bedroom. Although he is a supporter of gay rights, he comes across as a politician who happens to be gay, not a gay man whose penis dictates his political agenda. In fact, his speech at the last PN conference was a trenchant critique of the Partit Laburista for creating a sexual ghetto in its fold, the Gay, Bisexual & Transsexual section.

In a strong sense it was even admirable that he resigned from the PN because of his disagreement with the prime minister's parliamentary vote against divorce. He showed more integrity than the MPs, mostly on the PN side, who not only abstained but did so spinelessly by not turning up for the vote.

These are Cyrus Engerer's pluses. Then there is a minus, a big one I'm afraid. To resign from the PN is one thing, to join the PL in the same instant is quite another. It was unedifying. Divorce was an important matter, even a resigning one. But for him to now expect it to be a vast carpet under which he will sweep a torrent of anti-Labour and anti-Joseph Muscat words he uttered is another. It will not wash, neither with Nationalists nor with Labourites.

Engerer seems to be smart enough to realise that he has a political problem on his lap. But not smart enough to see that he cannot solve it. So he is already resorting to fooling himself. That is why, for instance, in his letter of resignation he says that he is joining a 'progressive movement' rather than the Partit Laburista. The truth is that he is joining the latter because the former does not exist. And he'll find this out the moment he asks his new leader, Joseph Muscat, to dismantle LGBT. It will be all downhill from there.

Cyrus Engerer will discover that in the Partit Laburista he is going to be forced to be gay, if you know what I mean.