Belizean LGBT Rights Violations

Posted May 21st, 2013 On my journey here to Playa del Carmen I was reminded of my many human frailties that are played out in the media, on facebook and privately. What defined me was not coming, but the decision not to wait for my friend's, next pay day. Too many times, it seems, my life has been about waiting for approval, waiting for the person to change his mind, waiting for the right time. I realized that its part of my natural personality to not wait, to be decisive, to be ahead of the curve, despite the duration of fears of my community and of my self.  What I have discovered as a person looking in, is that my primary function is to build bridges whether good or bad. What has developed over the last two years is a rational healthy debate on facebook between the wirmirs and the bammers regarding not just section 53, that extends to a more basic issues of how we support or respect dignity and rights. At least for the bammers engagement of the wirmirs. I say that I am a br...

Tea Party and the Right   Americans United for Separation of Church and State / By Rob Boston 234 COMMENTS Rep osted May 21st, 2013 The 12 Worst (and Most Powerful) Christian Right Groups The Religious Right in America is lavishly funded and politically well connected. These groups raise more than three-quarters of a billion dollars annually, mostly tax-exempt. May 2, 2011  |     The Religious Right in America is lavishly funded and politically well connected. While the men who lead the fundamentalist Christian political movement hold different opinions about theology, they share a deep and abiding hostility to the separation of church and state. They seek to inject religion into public schools, obtain taxpayer funding for religious schools a...

Charles Morris. (FP) By Ricky Jordan | Sun, May 19, 2013 - 12:06 AM Reverend Charles Morris has knocked the country’s Pentecostal ministers for taking what he says is an emotional stand on the issue of homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Responding to pastors and bishops who have given a thumbs-down to marrying same-sex couples, the Anglican priest and teacher told the SUNDAY SUN that no church could dictate on the issue. “If I were the Government, I would not listen to the Pentecostal ministers at all because right now we need to appeal to people’s intellect and apply reason to these situations,” Morris said. “The Pentecostal people are reasoning from emotion. I don’t understand how they would be prepared to die on an issue like homosexuality but at the same time see nothing wrong with the way money is siphoned from individuals in churches.” “Also, marriage is not an institution of the church but of the state. Min...

Posted May 19th, 2013 When I receive news that a 74 year old woman from Orange Walk, who doesn't even know me well defends me because of work that my organization does for women in Orange Walk, it becomes an important piece to document. More importantly, it seems the sassiness of the generation has passed well, as Elisa Castellanos Executive Director of Tikkum Olam has gone to bats for the United Belize Advocacy Movement not just once, despite her character being maligned. Seen here at Estero Amor, in Orange Walk, Elisa Castellenos has publicly expressed support over the years to a mainly Spanish speaking audience, something rarely done by any head of organization in Belize.   Elisa Castellanos was a spanish language translator and advocate, for IDAHO week of 2013 where she received a call from one lady who said on air that should supports her son, who is gay and that she may not understand what exactly that means, nevertheless, she understand loving her son.   A...

Posted May 18th, 2013 When last did Belize get a Senator, former Foreign Minister, a first lady and two media house to join on IDAHO Day to express support or solidarity in Belize, well never. As International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia were celebrated May 17th, 2013 this year. Coordination started happening as usual, on facebookwith the release of 50 helium balloons in the middle of traffic near the over pass. It was a small contingent of 9 persons Lisa Shoman, Paul Schmit and Robert Garbutt, Kelvin Ramdarace, Lisa Shoman, Debra Lewis, Caleb Orozco, Denise Frank and Brent Toombs, photographer and ally in the fight to increase visibility. We all met up at the farmers market at 11:45 am. I pulled out all 50 balloons  that was just delivered by Eric Castellanos of C-Net from Orange Walk. In the process, we lost a couple of the balloons, but not the spirit and the good will.   Our crowning achievement for the day we simply walked through traffic to the ce...

Posted May 17th, 2013           Chris Hamel Smith is now my new favorite lead lawyer. On May 7 th , he spent five (5) hours noting that “from the language, spirit and intent of the constitution “ to   Chief Justice Benjamin that if he pays attention to the principles of the constitution of Belize,   then the question for consideration would be, is section fifty three of the criminal code in consistent with the constitution and if so to what extent?”             He pointed out that forceful carnal intercourse, in other words “rape” is different from bestiality and that male homosexuals live as un-apprehended felons. He then quoted a South African case where it spoke of “only in the technical sense is this case about who penetrates whom…” ..and pointed out that status; moral citizenship and worth of the individual matters.         ...

Reposted May 17th, 2013 The Channel five report was entitled " Gender policy updated and it is against discrimination by sexual orientation" a telling title that demonstrates how far we have come in our discussion about gender. More importantly, most would not know that our involvement informing the gender policy really started in our contribution to the situation analysis that was produced by Adele Catzim-Sanchez that dialogue goes back 2009 that was advanced in 2010 at the Women's Issues Network Office and in our National Advocacy Working group (N.A.W.G) when as a coalition, we had to beat back efforts to regress women's health back to the dark ages. The nuggets in the gender policy includes the following:  One of the principles in the gender policy is that it recognize respect for diversity and does not shy away from using the term sexual orientation . It spoke to eliminating "gender base discrimination at all levels of the education system" that the B...