This year, don't ride your horse on the streets during rush hour, and don't smoke in a car with your children present, but feel free to make and distribute pornography – within limits. These are just some of the rules, from the game-changing to the very specific, the routine to the hugely controversial, brought in by a range of new laws introduced in 2016, closing off some possibilities and opening up others. The two that made international headlines were on the weightier end of the scale, both pushing the country further into progressive territory: the ban on gay conversion therapy and the removal of religious vilification as a criminal offence. Approved just this month, the ban on gay conversion drew little controversy but much interest, as just five years since the legalisation of divorce, it capped a long line of pro-LGBT legislation pioneered by the government. Not so with the repeal of religious vilification laws, which had been in place since 1933. The changes introduced in July were strongly disputed by the Opposition and, unsurprisingly, the Catholic Church, prompting Archbishop Charles Scicluna to ask God's forgiveness for legislators. The same law also...
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