Minister of Education Patrick Faber was not in office today to tell us why his ministry has allowed teachers in upper primary schools to use a manual sponsored by the US Embassy and Peace Corps, which teaches genders apart from male and female, and suggests that children have the right to choose what gender they want to be from an early age.
No senior official at the ministry was able to answer our question, either.
Pastor and television journalist, Louis Wade, Jr., of Belmopan, has questioned why the Ministry of Education has allowed the teaching of such unsuitable material to the young children in our schools.
This past Saturday, December 3, during a rally by Christian leadership organization Belize Action at the Battlefield Park challenging the agenda of the claimants of a case in the Supreme Court – the United Belize Advocacy movement (UNIBAM); its president, Caleb Orozco; and the Human Dignity Trust – Wade held up a copy of the manual, Education Today for a Healthy Tomorrow – Teacher’s Guide – Lessons for HFLE Curriculum, and quoted from pages 60 and 61, where the policy is set.
Wade used the content of the manual he presented to argue that the agenda of organizations like UNIBAM, supported by the U.S. and U.K. governments, has already entered Belize’s schools without our knowledge, and more is to come if UNIBAM gets its way at the Supreme Court.
Speaking with Amandala after the rally, Wade said that adherents of “social engineering” (his term for the beliefs described in the manual) believe that one can be trained through education to be able to choose what gender one can perform under, and to believe that one can make that choice at any time.
Sex, thus, becomes a “biological role,” but gender is a “social role,” something that society trains you to be, the manual teaches.
Wade strongly disagrees. “…That is clearly contrary to our cultural norm…what you have is foreign interests telling you your culture; what your culture is; therefore, we will pay you money, and pay your teachers money, and retrain your teachers to retrain your students to embrace other options for gender [they say]. How will we stand up to that? I mean, we will have a problem if these people come and tell us something’s wrong with our culture, yet we have accepted an ultimate one when they are telling us about gender roles.”
He went on to state that, by the views of these individuals, while having the characteristics of their defined gender (male or female), one can choose to act “female”, or a female can choose to “act male,” and that this is somehow natural, which it is not.
Wade has since told us that he and experts on the topic are reviewing the manual and have found certain other objectionable material that he was not prepared to release at this time.
In related news, late this afternoon, Amandala was informed that the preliminary hearing scheduled for tomorrow morning, Friday, at the Supreme Court in UNIBAM/Orozco vs. the Attorney General has been postponed to January 30, 2012.
Belize Action’s Pastor Scott Stirm sent this reporter a text message at 3:55 p.m.: “BZ Action – just got word, due to death of Elson Kaseke & and funeral FRI, the Prelim Hearing is adjourned till Jan 30! More time to MOBILIZE! Stay tuned!”
Shortly thereafter, we reached attorney for Orozco and UNIBAM, Lisa Shoman, SC, who confirmed the postponement and new date, but was unable to say why the case was put back so long.