Parliamentary Secretary for Equality Rosianne Cutajar has condemned homophobic and sexist comments made about Nationalist Party candidate Angela Coleiro.

Coleiro, a transgender candidate who intends to run in the next general election on a PN ticket, was the target of online abuse after giving a speech at a PN political activity in Żurrieq on Sunday.

She brushed aside the trolls, saying she intended to ignore them and stay positive.

"I grew a thick skin a long time ago," the PN candidate wrote. 

Cutajar, however, leapt to her political rival's defence. In a Facebook post on Sunday, the parliamentary secretary said the derogatory comments were an insult to the Labour Party and the government's efforts to promote civil rights.

"Another thing, let's stop calling every woman with whom we disagree, a prostitute. This is of great disservice to those women who aspire to become politicians.

"We don't want to be like our political adversaries, we want to be better," she added.

Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer also slammed the transphobic comments. 

"Every LGBTIQ politician ends up being the victim of homophobic attacks which we often do not even speak about, perhaps because we're used to living in a society where homophobic insults are the norm," he wrote. 

In a subsequent Facebook post, Coleiro urged her followers to keep an open political mind and said that no party controlled the LGBTIQ community. 

"I do not allow any party to use me," she wrote. "I have a brain just like anyone else". 

Earlier this summer, the radio and TV presenter – who underwent gender reassignment surgery almost three decades ago - filed a report with the Hate Speech and Crime Unit after she was subject to a barrage of gender-based hate speech on Facebook.