Church leaders, politicians, business people, supporting organizations, young civic leaders and citizens turned out by the hundreds on Saturday at Battlefield Park in the center of the city, in support of a rally spearheaded by the Christian organization, Belize Action, against the homosexual agenda of UNIBAM (United Belize Advocacy Movement) and its president, Caleb Orozco.
In a high-profile court case, UNIBAM and Orozco versus the Attorney General and Government of Belize, in which the Belize Council of Churches and Evangelical Association of Churches are interested parties, the organization is seeking to overturn Section 53 of the Criminal Code, which outlaws carnal intercourse “against the order of nature” with “any person or animal.”
UNIBAM’s argument is that the law discriminates against consenting sexual partners of the same gender, and that their individual right to privacy is affected.
Formed at the nomination of Henry Gordon as Senator representing the churches and supporting him in his role thereof, Belize Action has consistently and prominently opposed UNIBAM and Orozco’s position that the law should be amended.
The churches argue that if that clause is amended, it would likewise decriminalize “buggery,” that is, intercourse between two men, and would eventually lead to expansion of rights for homosexuals in Belize, contrary to Belize’s declaration of itself as a Christian nation.
Prime Minister Dean Barrow has publicly stated that the Government’s sole position at this point is to argue for the constitutionality of Section 53, and he and the ruling United Democratic Party (UDP) have thus declined to take a formal position.
Other Belizeans, however, are not nearly so reticent.
On Saturday, supporters of Belize Action rallied from 10:00 in the morning to just after 2:00 in the afternoon at the Battlefield Park, at the corner of Regent Street and Treasury Lane, mere steps away from the Supreme Court, where on December 9, a preliminary hearing takes place en route to the actual hearing of the case sometime in 2012.
Approximately 300 persons of all ages and walks of life came out, mostly Christians, all in full cry against the legalization of homosexuality in Belize and all that that entails.
Co-organizer, Pastor Scott Stirm, told Amandala, with regard to the line-up of speakers for the event: “Part of the accusation has been that this is just the Church, ranting on the homosexuals. What we wanted everybody to see is that it’s not that, it’s across the spectrum of society – business leaders, church leaders, political leaders, civic leaders, public leaders, our young people, everybody that is standing against this agenda…”
Those political leaders included the mayors of Belize City and Belmopan, Zenaida Moya-Flowers and Simeon Lopez (both UDP); Minister of Works and Port Loyola area representative Anthony “Boots” Martinez; Senator Gordon; PUP campaign manager and standard bearer for Cayo South, Julius Espat, as official emissary of PUP leader Francis Fonseca; and chairman of Vision Inspired by the People (VIP), Robert “Bobby” Lopez.
Both Canon Leroy Flowers of the Anglican Diocese (current president of the Council of Churches) and Reverend Eugene Crawford, president of the Belize Evangelical Association of Churches, were present and spoke, and representatives of the Bishops’ Council of the Roman Catholic Diocese, Union of Evangelical Churches of Belize, Assemblies of God Churches, Seventh-Day Adventist Mission, Evangelical Mennonite Churches, Church of the Nazarene and Baptist Association of Belize, gave their firm, unanimous positions against the suit. (Those pastors represented the unions of numerous Christian denominations around the country with thousands of adherents.)
The legal issue
According to Senator Henry Gordon, in speaking with Amandala, the law, as written, just indicates the penalty for someone caught in the act described, and the phrase, “against the order of nature,” is clearly defined in the Bible, on which he believes the Belize Constitution, which, in its preamble, acknowledges “the supremacy of God,” stands.
He reminded us that what will be decided at court is whether, under the Constitution, the fundamental rights and freedoms of the claimants are being infringed upon. He believes that the case could wind up all the way at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), depending on the outcome.
He warned the audience, therefore, not to get carried away with what Saturday’s rally represents, but to stay vigilant. ‘
PUP and VIP parties against UNIBAM suit; UDP politicians also speak out
Mayor Zenaida Moya-Flowers welcomed the gathering to Belize City and opened with the first mention of a recurring theme of the day – the influence of outside forces in the UNIBAM suit.
At a meeting held earlier this year in Perth, Australia, during the Commonwealth Heads of Government assembly, Moya-Flowers observed that representatives of smaller nations were first to speak out against the introduction of the homosexual agenda through legal means despite suggestions that foreign aid would be withdrawn or reduced. “…you may think our country is small, but, what happens here will reflect and send a message in the world of what a small country can do, so do your part to continue to take a stand!” she concluded.
Mayor Lopez appeared on stage with his wife of 42 years, Isolita, and his young grandson, Amari, to, as he said, “portray what a family should be like,” and publicly acknowledged his anti-UNIBAM stance on the basis that despite the ups-and-downs of marriage, “if UNIBAM gets its agenda, then you will rarely see a couple like this standing here,” and that marriage between a man and a woman was necessary to preserve the Belizean nation. He also called on fellow mayors and other political leaders to join his stand.
Minister Martinez brought great applause when he noted that even those advocating for same-sex rights “came from a union of a man and a woman.” Testifying as a “son of God” rather than in his political capacity, the Minister nonetheless extolled the virtues of union between man and woman, and expressed his hope that the anti-homosexual agenda “had won already” because of its moral high ground.
The PUP’s Julius Espat spoke of bringing back morality to the nation of Belize, and recorded the PUP’s position against the lawsuit, though the party has said it will respect the court’s decision.
And the VIP’s Lopez stated in his address that the VIP’s position is based on one of its five pillars of national development, the promotion of a family life environment. Personally, Lopez recalled visiting his grandparents in Belize City and Cayo and witnessing the strength of those unions, and as a father himself, he said he wanted to set the best example for his children and grandchildren.
“We love homosexuals – it’s their behavior we don’t like”
In keeping with the day’s theme and message of love and tolerance, the pastors who took the stage addressed homosexuality in the wider context of social and moral decay.
Perhaps the best received of these speeches was from the R.C. Bishops’ Council rep Maria Zabaneh, who recounted a conversation with an American cab driver while on her way to the airport to return to Belize from the United States prior to today’s event.
According to Zabaneh, the man lamented the changing of America, and in particular the inaction of American Christians, going so far as to take personal responsibility for not doing more.
Despite the threats of removal of aid, she insisted, Christians could remain silent no longer: “The soul of Belize and its people is not for sale…as for me and my nation, we will serve the Lord!” she proclaimed to tumultuous applause.
Pastor Abel Reymundo of the Evangelical Mennonites summed it up thus: “We love homosexuals individually; it is their behavior that we don’t like.”
District Superintendent for the Nazarenes, Pastor Darren Pound, remarked that homosexuality is only a symptom of the greater problem of human sin, which we need to treat.
President of the Baptist Association, Rev. Ruperto Vicente (better known as a former footballer and football official) noted that those drawn into homosexuality have made “bad choices,” and that God did not create homosexuals, that they were affected by their environment.
Naturalized Belizean Tatiana Peña recounted her experiences at a university in Nicaragua, where sodomy laws were taken off the books in 2007. Since then, she said, incidences of homosexuality have increased and Christian Nicaraguans and others have stayed silent for fear of accusations of discrimination. Belize, she said, can stop it before it starts.
Where do you stand?
For many of the speakers, particularly those of a younger generation, their stance today did not come without some introspection.
Paul Lopez, a Christian youth, spoke strongly against the “false doctrine” of UNIBAM and its supporters and accused them of recruiting in schools to continue their agenda, which is not in “our best interest.”
Shadel Young, an employee of Plus TV, said she initially struggled with her stand on homosexuality, believing that what consenting persons do privately was none of her business.
But she changed her mind, she said, after realizing that any change to the laws would affect all Belizeans, and that the decision to denounce the same-sex lifestyle is only a mandate handed down by God Himself to his followers. She implored the Government not to take the suit lightly and to do its best not to let the children down.
Citizens Organized for Liberty through Action (COLA) were represented by Plus TV journalist Giovanni Brackett and activist Moses Sulph, national vice-president and president respectively.
Brackett forcefully delineated Belize’s “search for identity” as a nation, which, he said, has caused us to seek approval from foreign interests without understanding at times how harmful they can be. He boldly stated that had COLA or any organization he worked with taken a different position, he would resign, because he was a Christian first and foremost.
Sulph agrees. By the definition of what is normal – “that which functions according to its design” – the act of homosexuality could never be normal, he said. Sulph also noted that in his talks with various adherents of homosexuality, he had discovered that they were often victims of the social standards, preyed upon as a result of their hunger for the finer things in life. Therefore, he said, the social aspect of the issue also needs to be addressed.
The battle continues
According to Louis Wade, Jr. another important front is the fight in the schools.
At Saturday’s rally, he pointed to pages 60 and 61 of a manual, “Education Today for a Healthy Tomorrow – Teacher’s Guide – Lessons for HFLE Curriculum,” sponsored by Belize’s Ministry of Education with support from the U.S. Embassy and Peace Corps, which he says teaches students in Standard Five that they have the right to choose what their gender is: male, female, bisexual, or transgender.
Wade describes such views as “social engineering,” that is, training a person through education to be able to choose what gender they prefer to perform under, and to believe that they 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,[and] 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.”
Wade maintains that today’s event was not simply about spirituality, but it was about demonstrating the “synergy” between the various groups in opposition. He added that the churches believe that anyone can change, despite the homosexuals’ belief otherwise.
So what’s next?
Sunday, December 4, according to Pastor Stirm, was a national day of prayer for the defeat of the suit and collecting of a special offering to support the costs of the court in the case as interested parties. Some $250,000 is the planned target to be raised, but Stirm told us that if 2,500 Belizean families contribute $100 each, for instance, then “we gone clear.”
Saturday’s rally ended with a public show of repentance led by the pastors and several minutes of prayer, praise and worship.