I’m selling these fine, fresh truths, so come get some till they last. Now, it is important to note that truths come in two varieties: there are absolute truths, of which, sadly, I am currently out of stock. It’s a matter of finding the right agent, you see, as these are hard to procure.

Then there are simple truths.

These are smaller, yet more abundant. And, whereas they might look less appetising and opulent, many prefer them over the bigger type, both for their year-round availability and their sweeter taste.

Customers also enjoy their bite-sized shape and the fact that not too much juice can be squeezed out of them, meaning that there is less risk of staining one’s garments.

Enough marketing, however, since not much is needed. Having read the latest news about the gender confusion debacle, it is clear that truths, of whatever kind, are in high demand and in short supply.

Let us start by consuming some of the truly ripe ones, lest they expire.

Many commented on their confusion about gender and sexuality. The two are not the same. Gender is not the same as sexual orientation. Being attracted to one sex is not the same as being a certain gender.

Nor is being a certain gender the same as being a certain sex, which, in turn, has absolutely nothing to do with sexual orientation. One can biologically be male and, the theory goes, also feel a woman (or neither, or both, etc.).

One is not bound to accept this, of course: one can argue that gender, being a social construct, does not even exist and one may declare acceptance of sex while refusing gender theory.

That kind of hunger requires some absolute truths, which are currently very scarce.

The simple truth we can all happily consume for the time being is this: that gender and sex, even when their content happens to be identical, are not the same concepts (for, otherwise, why would we need two concepts to refer to one?): you may denounce the validity of one concept and you may argue that they are always and necessarily the same or, contrariwise, you may argue that one is fixed and the other malleable but it won’t do any good to mix and confuse the two.

Gender is not the same as sexual orientation. Being attracted to one sex is not the same as being a certain gender- Kenneth Charles Curmi

Next is the argument, proposed by Sandra Gauci, that: “Principal amongst [red herrings] is that ‘sociologists, anthropologists, sexologists and psychologists’ are the experts on gender, including trans identities and not trans people themselves.”

This is quite a fallacious reasoning. It is akin to stating that the only person who can truly proclaim to be an authority on cars is the person driving one. Or that everyone who eats food, which is essentially everyone who lives, is an expert on nutrition.

Of course, only pilots are authorities on piloting though they need not be, and are usually not, authorities on what they are piloting.

The only way this argument holds is by assuming that all trans-people are doing their ‘transgendering’ perfectly. This begs the question, however, for how do we distinguish a perfect act of ‘transgendering’ from a less perfect one? Is there actually any objective measure? How can we claim that anybody is an expert if we seem to struggle in agreeing on general ideas relating to the subject?

Certainly, one is an authority on what one experiences, in terms of the experience itself but not necessarily in terms of what is behind the experience itself. I am the utmost authority on the pain that I experience when ill, yet, that does not make me a doctor. It is the latter who is the expert on whatever is causing the experience: simply because I am the subject of an experience does not make me an expert on whatever it is that I experience.

Every subject that creates controversy can be used for political gain, of course, though truth is hardly the objective in those instances. Truth is rarely of any political advantage, in fact, which is why our country is in such a truly dire state of affairs.

All this leads us to the inevitable and logical step, which by now, stuffed with truths as you are, albeit of the smaller variety, should be evident to all, for this is truly the only question that follows from the above, this too being a fact so plain and clear for all to see that I am also sure it be just as evident to all.

When and how do we have democracy? And, more importantly, why?

Kenneth Charles Curmi is the former national representative of the Parliament of Malta to the European Parliament and the EU institutions.