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Rebecca Sturtevant
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U.S. Religious-Right Groups Working to Keep
Criminal Statutes
Barring LGBT Sex in Belize and Other Caribbean
Countries
SPLC Report: Groups Spreading Anti-LGBT Propaganda Abroad
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – As lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT) people continue making strides toward equality in the United States,
hard-line U.S. religious-right groups that have spent decades demonizing LGBT
people are focusing their attention – and propaganda – on a legal battle over
the criminalization of LGBT sex in Belize, the outcome of which could affect
criminal statutes in as many as a dozen other Caribbean countries, according to
a Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) report released today.
Dangerous
Liaisons: The American Religious Right & the Criminalization of
Homosexuality in Belize examines how these groups are working in countries
where anti-gay attitudes are strong and violence against the LGBT community is
common. Several prominent groups have descended on the tiny Central American country
of Belize to prevent Section 53, a statute criminalizing gay sex, from being
struck down in court. Their efforts already have intensified anti-LGBT attitudes
in the country, where the plaintiff in the case has been threatened and
physically assaulted.
“Many of these American religious-right groups know they
have lost the battle against LGBT rights in the United States, and they’re now
aiding and abetting anti-LGBT forces in countries where anti-gay violence is prevalent,”
said Heidi Beirich, report author and director of the SPLC’s Intelligence
Project. “These groups are pouring fuel on an exceedingly volatile fire.”
Groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) often
refuse to even publicly acknowledge their efforts in these countries. The ADF,
a prominent Christian legal group formerly known as the Alliance Defense Fund,
joined the legal battle in Belize by providing advice to defenders of Section
53, a criminal statute that prescribes a 10-year sentence for “carnal
intercourse against the order of nature with any person or animal.”
Other groups working abroad include the American Center for
Law and Justice, the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute, Family Watch
International, United Families International, and the World Congress of
Families.
The legal contest in Belize is only the latest in a wider
struggle that is simultaneously being waged in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin
America and elsewhere. Overturning Section 53 in Belize could lead to the
demise of similar statutes in a dozen other countries that are part of a single
legal system culminating in the Caribbean Court of Justice.
Since the arrival of the groups in Belize, LGBT activists have
reported an increase in anti-gay propaganda imported from the United States – such
as the bogus claim that gay men are more likely to be pedophiles.
Caleb Orozco, who is challenging the statute that
criminalizes LGBT sex in Belize, said he has seen a change after the ADF’s arrival.
“I didn’t feel as insecure [before the ADF’s arrival],” he
said. “The majority of people had a live-and-let-live attitude toward gays,
which is ‘Do your thing, just don’t bring it to my house.’ But the controversy
really gave people permission to express their hate in a way they didn’t see
they had permission to before.”
Orozco has been physically assaulted in the streets and
threatened with death. His lawyers worry that he could be assassinated, an
event that would end the lawsuit, since he is the only plaintiff.
A report released this March
by the Chicago-based Heartland Alliance, a human rights group, found that the
LGBT community in Belize is routinely subjected to violence, even from law enforcement
officials. The report cited, among other violent crimes, the bludgeoning death
of an openly gay doctor and the murder of a politician’s gay brother in his own
home. It also noted that border officials have regularly detained and harassed
visitors they suspect of being gay.
Uganda,
where a similar battle over the criminalization of gay sex has been raging for
years, has seen violence as well. In 2010, a newspaper there published
front-page photos and the home addresses of gay men under the headline “Hang
Them.” Twenty-three days later, an LGBT activist on the list was murdered in
his home.
“These
American groups are clearly fanning the flames of anti-gay hatred,” Beirich
said. “They need to explain how their stated goals of protecting religious
liberty and marriage means bringing the full weight of the criminal law down on
LGBT people.”
###
The Southern Poverty
Law Center
is a nonprofit organization that combats hate, intolerance and discrimination
through education, litigation and advocacy. Its Intelligence Project tracks the activities of hate groups and monitors militia and other
extremist, antigovernment activity. For more information, visit www.splcenter.org
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