Belizean LGBT Rights Violations

5th April, 2014 The People's United Party recently appointed Patrick Jason  Andrew  to the Senate of Belize to represent the People's United Party. But he has a history of working with our opponents at Belize action and co-hosting the show rise and shine with Louis Wade. He can be seen below holding up a sign at the Take a Stand Rally" organized by Belize action.  Supporters and allies alike ears perked up as we realized one of the tenets of the pillars was rising quietly to the surface and that was control of government. In a recent quote from Patrick Jason Andrews facebook he pointed out his clear position on L.G.B.T concerns. His snapshot was" Let history record that we choose to die on our feet rather than live on our knees as slaves to any man(or Foreign godless agenda). For God, Family and Country." Of note, the PUP must be acknowledged for having Lisa Shoman as Senator as well, who is diametrically opposite in view when it come the the party c...

April 3rd, 2014 American Scott Stirm circulated an email  that spoke to OAS presentation made by Caleb Orozco of UniBAM and Stephen Diaz of B.Y.E.C on 28th March, 2014. The presentation can be seen here https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=gKN7ClwGSLA&feature=youtu.be   The email pointed out the following: "... that Belize is “perpetuating hate speech,” because someone wrote Orozco a note saying “not even dogs do this.” (9 min 15 sec into video, also 13:30)," but if Scott Stirm listened closely, the presentation spoke to an Amandala article, not to someone writing Orozco.  The email also spoke to a resolution to ratify the ‘Discrimination Against Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity’  at the OAS” last year in Guatemala. (6 min. 10 sec into video)." To show, how these people do not know what they are talking about, its important to note that there were two resolutions, one that spoke to Human Rights Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Ge...

1st April, 2014 Thematic hearings at the OAS was done on March, 28th, 2014, most importantly, it was the first LGBTTI thematic hearing done for Belize in 32 years of its independence. It was constructive, engaging and informative as the Inter-American Commission asked for additional evidence of discrimination in education and employment and workplace while the state was asked about data it has on crime an violence. After the hearing, we sat down with the Commission, International partners and the ambassador to discussion the process of precautionary measures issued by the the Commission along with dynamics of mechanism. Afterwards we met with Tracy Robinson to look at different approaches to engagement with the state on LGBTTI issues. For the first time, Jamaica and Belize was side by side with our Latin American counterparts. It was clear that the approval of  laws were not sufficient to ensure rights enforcement and protection, that established mechanism require penal...