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Showing posts from 2016

UniBAM at UN: It was about LGBT Politics, Humanity and Defiance

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Post 19th October, 2016 On September 21st, Belize was placed in a room of power at the United Nations General Assembly side event meeting. An event organized  by the U.N. L.G.B.T Core Group, which includes more than 20 countries and European Union. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders spoke at the meeting alongside Biden.        I had two cool parts to the event, the first was meeting Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koender and discovering the down to earth nature of the man while waiting for Vice President Biden at the door to the hall. Koender made me feel me l so at ease while waiting for Vice-President Biden that I was comfortable enough to speak to Biden sister for a few seconds. I learned latter, the Dutch Foreign Minsiter had passed or near through Belize once, years ago. The highlight of the event for me was meeting Vice President Biden, I had asked

Belize's Good Governance: LGBT David and Goliath Battle.

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Posted, September 25th, 2016 On 21st September, the Prime Minister of Belize, in his independence speech acknowledged that there was a culture war between traditional values and religious mores. The statement reflects a new era of understanding  in Belize about the value of good governance. It also comes at a time when, government has experienced pressures from the Belize National Teachers Union, scandals triggered by an Auditor General Report about passports, accusation that Ministers were associated with a dubious character named Danny Mason who was arrested for the alleged beheading of a Pastor, Lands department scandal, protests from fundamentalists and opposition party. In his speech, the PM said, " the .... recasting of the categories of sexual and gender identity, and the claims that human rights include LGBT rights. Not surprisingly, the Chief Justice's Section 53 ruling detonated a societal pitched battle in which traditional va

Section 53: A case of Adult Privacy and The best liars in religion

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9th September, 2016 On August 10th, 2016, the Supreme Court of Belize ruled that section 53 was unconstitutional and read down the offending section to say, "this does not apply to consenting sexual acts between adults in private." Wade, in his disappointment noted in a facebook commentary on August 18th that Cabinet and Caleb was Sodom and Gomorrah. This snapshot on the left reveals exactly what he said while his fundamentalist colleagues revealed  solutions that included a referendum on section 53, a constitutional amendment on marriage, safeguarding the education from LGBT Agenda, among others to correct concerns about the acknowledgement of LGBT rights in Belize.   Furthermore, Wade and Stirm promoted a campaign of deception with the Belize National Teachers, Utilities Union and the leader of the opposition. As a result, the Utilities Union issued a Press Release on September 8th, calling on the government to,.. " mount an appeal, against the

Guatemala's Border Dispute: A Belizean LGBT Prospective

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Posted August 8th, 2016 The current debate on Guatemala ad Belize about sovereignty has forced the United Belize Advocacy Movement to look into the level of violence that affects both countries from a LGBT prospective. What the research alludes to is that both countries are challenged to address violence that occurs within its borders, have grossly under-invested in addressing human rights mechanisms, and renders, systematically, its LGBT citizens invisible in policy and planning.   Let's examine the global picture of trans murders. Trans Murder Monitoring project issued its IDAHOT  reported that counted  2115  killings of trans and gender diverse people in 65 countries worldwide between the 1st of January 2008 and the 30th of April 2016. 1,654 of which were reported in Central and South America. The annual report up to December 2015 points out, Further analysis of this data shows that 65% of all murdered trans and gender diverse people whose profession was known were

Orosco's Lesson

  Reposted August 11th, 2016 Orosco’s Lessons   There’s lots to learn from Orosco! Despite people trying to make his plight into a fiasco Taking on the entire nation and won Disaporan Belize needs to challenge section 63 (1) BPP needs to bring a case for the signing of the UN convention on Anti Corruption So does the entire Nation He’s taught us how to lobby He’s taught us how to agitate He’s taught us how engage He taught us not to accept being marginalize Or self ostracize He taught us to organize He taught us to endure with tear in your eyes He taught us to push on despite being criticized Caleb did not do this he owe He put up his office near his home He sought international affiliations He was thinking of future generations He started web- site and attended international forums Researched and lobbied among those ready for action He show more ump than our politicians He’s taught us how to lobby He’s taught us how to agitate He’s taught us no engage