9

Resistance to criminalisation, and social movement organising to advance LGBT rights in Belize

Caleb Orozco

The United Belize Advocacy Movement (UNIBAM) received non-governmental organisation (NGO) status on 4 May 2006, an achievement, it might be argued, that marked the beginning of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) rights movement in Belize. It was subsequently involved in launching a constitutional challenge on 24 September 2010 against Section 53 of Belize’s Criminal Code,¹ a colonial-era law that criminalises ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature’.² Filing the case became the most important event in the effort to advance LGBT civil rights in Belize, and needs to be examined in the context of UNIBAM’s development and the environment in which it works.

The founding of UNIBAM was inspired by the implementation of the 2005 multicentric study supported by the US Agency for International Aid (USAID) that examined conditions faced by sex workers, people living with HIV, and men who have sex with men (MSM). Although the study was never completed, it inspired UNIBAM’s first situational analysis on MSM and HIV/AIDS in 2006, along with community conversations. At the time I worked as a health educator for the Pan American Social Marketing Organization (PASMO) with support from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) project of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). I implemented group sessions to further the vision of LGBT community leadership in Orange Walk, a northern district of Belize. This was important because there had been no direct representation or political voice for the population since the HIV epidemic started in the country in 1986, despite the fact that gay men were disproportionately affected by the outbreak. As well, UNIBAM could not have existed had the basic framework for an LGBT rights movement in Belize not been created by organisations such as the Alliance Against AIDS (AAA), which responded to the HIV epidemic during the 1980s. The Alliance offered community training on HIV prevention, stigma and discrimination, as well as male sexual health. In addition, OPEC’s Fund for International Development supported work with marginalised groups including sex workers and MSM populations through UNFPA. The HIV prevention work with MSM, carried out by PASMO, along with the health ministry’s multicentric 2005 study, set the gears in motion for LGBT community representatives to engage with policy and health spaces, advance data structures and institutional representation, and build relationships with international allies. In essence, the formation of UNIBAM was inspired by the Ministry of Health’s study.

On 16 February 2006, ten people from Belize City and Orange Walk met to come up with a name that could reflect Belize’s cultural diversity. Although English is the country’s official language, people speak Spanish in the North, indigenous languages like Mopan, Ketchi and Garifuna in the South, and Creole English in Belize District − and it is also home to various other ethnic groups from around the world. Members of the LGBT community at the meeting strove to ensure that communication could be sustained across linguistic and ethnic lines. Initially we invested our own funds and, with help from supporters, were able to register UNIBAM as an NGO. Five months later, in October 2006, we received our first grant from the HIV Collaborative Fund, Tides Foundation for the Caribbean − and we have never looked back.

Launching the constitutional challenge

The year 2007 was one of opportunities. We participated in a human rights meeting in Santo Domingo, sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), that had invited Simeon Sampson, a leading human rights lawyer in Belize, to participate. That meeting marked the beginning of UNIBAM’s relationship with the University of the West Indies. Tracy Robinson, professor of law, spoke to me about the goals of the University of West Indies Rights Advocacy Project (U-RAP) and their legal research on member states of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom). There, I learned about U-RAP’s efforts in legal mapping, and the need to identify a claimant for a legal challenge to Section 53, Belize’s sodomy law.³ I quickly raised my hand and said: ‘I was ready yesterday!’ Professionally, I felt that the need for a claimant synergised with UNIBAM’s mission statement, which declares us as an advocacy organisation using rights-based approaches to reduce stigma and discrimination. On a personal level, I had experienced physical assault, homophobic slurs, mockery and threats of violence for two decades. I felt that if I was going to experience discrimination and violence for doing nothing, I would rather be mistreated for doing something that I believe in passionately.

I met with Professor Robinson and Arif Bulkan, a lawyer from Guyana, to talk about the legal framework for a constitutional challenge to Section 53 of the Belize Criminal Code, and to prepare for the case. In 2009, Lisa Shoman⁴ became senior counsel for the case and filed it in 2010 as well as providing advice about the process. Another lawyer, Westmin James, took on court procedure. Public education and advocacy, and community engagement and mobilisation were UNIBAM’s domain. In 2011, Human Dignity Trust, the Commonwealth Lawyers Association and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) submitted an application to become interested parties in the case, in support of rescinding Section 53. The Catholic and Anglican churches and the Belize Evangelical Association of Churches submitted applications to become interested parties on the side of the Belize government defending the provision.

To prepare a knowledge mobilisation strategy, UNIBAM commissioned the first LGBT legal review in Belize in 2010, in partnership with Northwestern University, Illinois. Completed in 2014, the review looked at the Belize Constitution and subsidiary laws to examine gaps in legal protections affecting the socioeconomic and civil rights of LGBT citizens. With regard to litigation to decriminalise same-sex intimacy, the review revealed systematic exclusion from legal protections, despite the existence of a liberal constitution (Northwestern University, 2014). We circulated the review and a summary of its findings to cabinet. The Michigan Law Clinic also assisted in building our knowledge of legal protections or gaps. As a result, we were able to develop our capacity on how to advance legal reform.

The Section 53 case was strategically timed. It built on a 2008 legal review by the National AIDS Commission (NAC) that called for the repeal of Section 53; the Organization of American States’ (OAS) resolutions on human rights in terms of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI), which had been supportive since 2008; and the 2009 UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) which, while not directly supportive, recognised the rights and freedoms of all Belizeans as enshrined under Section 3 of the Belize Constitution. Furthermore, it was important for us to treat the litigation as a mapping exercise to expose our opponents and profile their public statements as evidence of discrimination and psychological violence, as well as to inspire and mobilise the LGBT community. The controversy surrounding the case fostered public debate with members of the public and church leaders who were encouraged to consider their position on LGBT rights and reflect on whether the dignity of the person was important.

As the claimant, I played a role both as an advocate and political strategist, with the support of Belizeans for the Constitutional Challenge, a group created to advance the Section 53 case and to assess and report community communication. They also monitored news outside of Belize and channelled information to amplify our message and challenge opponents. Allies and community members effectively countered the arguments of opponents of decriminalisation on social media platforms like ‘Se La vee’ – a virtual forum for general discussion with a membership of over 2,000 – as well as engaging with our opponents, such as Belize Action, on their Facebook page. Still more LGBT community members developed additional virtual spaces for engagement, analysis and concerns.

Building regional and international alliances

Regional and international networking was critical to develop strategic alliances, build capacity, and take advantage of knowledge mobilisation opportunities. Use of international spaces was important, particularly given that the Belize government did not provide any financial support to build capacity for LGBT rights organising. Two grants were secured by UNIBAM to build internal capacity and invest in a small building for the organisation. The Collaborative Fund for the Caribbean and the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) were UNIBAM’s first funders. Without their support, we would not have been able to advance our advocacy work in Belize.⁵

Regionally, UNIBAM was able to network with the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC),⁶ and became a peer member of the Caribbean Treatment Action Group (CTAG), and of Heartland International (which led an LGBT coalition to advance the SOGI resolution at the OAS in 2008). Our partners were: the Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights, the Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI), the Caribbean Forum for Liberation and Acceptance of Genders and Sexualities (CariFLAGS) and the Kaleidoscope Trust, among others, to leverage political spaces, raise awareness and improve our ability to communicate our concerns.

Nationally, UNIBAM was appointed as a NAC commissioner, and became a member of the Women’s Issues Network of Belize (WIN-Belize).⁷ In 2010, recognising the value of enhancing community capacity, UNIBAM also supported the development of transgender leadership by acting as a fiscal sponsor to support efforts to build a regional network for transgender people, called Caribbean Regional Trans in Action (CRTA). In turn, this led to the first research on self-perception and rights awareness for transgender people in Belize, and created the framework for the legal incorporation of TIABelize, a transgender-focused organisation founded in the country in 2015.

Our international work started in 2007 at a regional meeting which brought together activists from across the Caribbean to revitalise CariFLAGS, in Ocho Rios, Jamaica.⁸ The vision for the region was ambitious. A CariFLAGS listserv was created to act as a clearing house of news and support resource mobilisation and knowledge engagement that affected MSM populations. These efforts were enhanced by the OAS meeting in Panama in 2007, where LGBT activists from across Latin American and the Caribbean region intervened for the first time. We stayed up until 3 am to draft our first declaration as a coalition − which condemned violence against persons based on SOGI – and called on the OAS system to set up structures to investigate and address these concerns. In 2008 CariFLAGS, with the help of CVC, held a meeting in Barbados to develop a plan of action for the region. During that meeting, as alternative speaker, I drafted a two-minute presentation that was used at the UN high-level neeting on AIDS in New York. Seeing Belize’s health minister, the chair of NAC, the head of the national AIDS programme, and a Permanent Mission representative together in the session, I realised for the first time that international spaces could be leveraged for advocacy work at the country level.

Figure 14. Left to right: Namela Baynes Henry (SASOD) and Caleb Orozco (UNIBAM), Emancipation Park, Kingston, Jamaica, 10 July 2013. Photo credit: Ulelli Verbeke, SASOD and Envisioning.

Our first attempt at UNIBAM to get the state to issue a formal position on its LGBT citizens came in an unpublished shadow report, developed in partnership with the SRI for the 2009 UPR. Through this process we learned of the Belize government’s response to recommendation 9 of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) UPR, which addresses decriminalisation of sodomy. Their statement read: ‘The Government of Belize has considered this recommendation and is of the view that any legislative changes in this regard would require extensive national consultations given the nature of the issues involved. The Government does not yet have a mandate to effect these changes’ (para. 6).⁹

Further, in response to recommendation 28, regarding discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and reviewing discriminatory legislation, the Belizean government said: ‘While there is no political mandate at this time to amend the relevant legislation, the Government is nonetheless committed to protecting all members of society from discrimination. Indeed protection from discrimination is protected by the Belize Constitution’ (para. 28). This was the first time since 1981 that the Belizean government had given an official position on its LGBT citizens.

In 2010, we attended a meeting on HIV and the law, in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, supported by the UNDP. A Belizean who had been invited to the meeting, Mia Quetzal (regional coordinator, Caribbean Regional Trans in Action), was subjected to transphobic behaviour by an immigration officer upon arriving at Port of Spain. The incident was covered by the media (Daily Express, 2011) and an investigation was launched. Mia Quetzal’s experience offered an important lesson on the need to raise the profile of the LGBT community in Belize.

Inspired by the Port of Spain regional meeting, and with help from the UNDP, resources were found to organise a national dialogue in Belize, attended by more than a hundred Belizeans and featuring the visible engagement of LGBT participants.

Engaging with international human rights mechanisms

In 2013, UNIBAM and the Heartland Alliance submitted a shadow report as part of the country review for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) for consideration at the United Nations Human Rights Committee’s 107th session. It was entitled ‘Human rights violations of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) people in Belize’. Significantly, the foreign affairs ministry had invited a UNIBAM representative to its consultation for both the UPR and its national report for ICCPR. Religious opponents from Belize’s Evangelical Association were also at the table. In its response to the UPR, the Belize government noted all 14 LGBT-specific recommendations referencing SOGI.¹⁰ While the government did not move to act on any of the recommendations, it did not directly oppose them either.

Over the years, we learned that sustaining national efforts requires strong international partnerships. Working in coalition with the coordinators of Heartland Alliance from 2008 to 2015 gave UNIBAM access to national leaders regionally, which was helpful for political engagement and gaining knowledge. For six years we worked to engage Caribbean ambassadors on the OAS resolutions on human rights in terms of SOGI. The resolutions called for investment and action to be taken by the OAS system, condemned acts of violence, and called for annual progress reviews. We learned quickly that there was a regional profile of Caribbean politics and value in using social media to document the presence of opponents in these political spaces. We learned that regional leaders were making decisions based on values rather than policy and rights obligations, and that they knew little about the application of fundamental rights in relation to LGBT citizens.

At the 2013 OAS General Assembly in Guatemala, and again in 2014, we witnessed Belize adding reservations to SOGI resolutions, while encouraging the adoption of all other resolutions.¹¹ Interestingly, the reservations have no legal value and can be deemed only as a political statement. Such reservations are usually raised to highlight a country’s political concern without derailing the resolutions. They can be used to weaken the commitment of states to respond to the resolution nationally, or to support political positions that are irrelevant to the substance of the resolution itself. On the other hand, UNIBAM engaged discussions on Caribbean support and perception in relation to LGBT issues. The Latin American and Caribbean Coalition of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transvestite, transgender, transsexual and intersex organisations (LGBTTTI Coalition), working within the OAS, gained political momentum and shifted the political tone from indifference to building support systems such as the LGBT Unit.¹²

In 2013 the far right began to show up at the OAS in greater numbers. It was a time of turmoil in Belize, as the case against Section 53 was heard, and the Belize Gender Policy – which included sexual orientation – was introduced to cabinet, and the religious right held protests, which they called ‘constitutional marches’. Personal security became a concern after I filed the constitutional challenge in 2010, indeed security became a big part of the advocacy process, as the people around me were also affected, particularly at the UNIBAM office. Harassment was ever present. We discovered how fragile our security was. In the context of protests against the case, I was assaulted and lost two teeth. The UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of freedom of expression and on the situation of human rights defenders wrote to the government in 2012 about my safety. Against this backdrop, the OAS approved precautionary measures for me.¹³ These are requests made by the OAS’s Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IAHCR) that looks into the security of human rights defenders after receiving reports of violence. They can call for a state to prevent irreparable harm to the person or the organisation of concern.¹⁴

My family, who were on the frontline of maintaining my safety, ensured that my doors were locked and that I did not walk long distances. Behind the scenes, community members provided support. I learned to drive at the age of 39, I stayed away from crowds and minimised my travel at night. During the 2013 hearings, four security officers accompanied me to and from court. These efforts were complemented by security support from two regional programmes that lasted for approximately three years.

Four years of engagement with the OAS system led to an invitation in 2012 for me to meet the foreign minister at his office in Belize. We built on that invitation and sought a thematic hearing on discrimination and violence against LGBT persons with the IAHCR. The hearing took place on 28 March 2014. Stephen Diaz and I spoke on behalf of UNIBAM; it was the first time that LGBT Belizeans had presented their concerns about discrimination and violence to the IAHCR. The government of Belize sent its ambassador, Nestor Mendez, to present on their behalf.¹⁵

In 2015, the LGBTTTI Coalition saw approximately 30 fundamentalists – numbers equal to our own representatives – at the OAS General Assembly in Washington DC. There, I met Helene Coley Nicholson, president of the Lawyers Christian Fellowship. A news report from July 2014 gives insight into her perspectives and professional background:

. . . according to Helene Coley Nicholson, a member of the Jamaica CAUSE Secretariat, the group finds the agenda of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex, LGBTI community, to be a cause for concern.

Nicholson further stated that Jamaica CAUSE stood to oppose said agenda which, according to her, seeks to foster a society where all sexual expression is free and those in opposition are punished. (Collom, 2014)

In a letter to the editor of the Jamaica Gleaner on 15 November 2013, Philippa Davies of Jamaica wrote: ‘. . . isn’t forcing unwanted laws and behaviour on the majority of a population an act of oppression? Where is the justice in that move, Minister Golding?’. She was referring to discussions by Mark Golding, the then justice minister, about efforts under way to review laws pertaining to sexual conduct.

At the OAS General Assembly in Washington in 2015, it was quid pro quo between the religious right’s opposition to LGBT rights and the LGBT coalition. When a diplomat spoke in support of their rights, the LGBT coalition clapped and the right-wing groups responded. When fundamentalists’ issues were backed, the LGBT coalition held up protest signs, written in Spanish, that covered such concerns as US visa restrictions (which had prevented some coalition members from arriving in Washington), and laws affecting transgender populations, reproductive rights, rights without homophobia, diverse families and equal treatment. We carried out research on religious fundamentalist opposition in Latin America and the Caribbean and reported events as they transpired through social media, creating our own alternative news stream designed to educate people about the political process at the OAS and the presence and statements of the opposition. We were able to reach 879 members on CariFLAGS’ Facebook page and 300 Belizean members on the UNIBAM Facebook page. Belizean activists joined the coalition in protest against the position of fundamentalists, and used the opportunity to arrange meetings at the Belize mission with our foreign minister. They also engaged USAID representatives on work being done in the country. Visibility at the OAS and engagement with Belizean diplomats and political leaders allowed us to document and record the experience for institutional memory.

The legal case, the gender policy, our community and our allies

During 2013 UNIBAM conducted interviews with 39 LGBT individuals and allies in Belize as part of the work carried out by the Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights team (Envisioning), a process that gave us insights into issues affecting LGBT people. We discovered incidents of unreported violence and discrimination, and failure by state officials to document violence and discrimination experienced by LGBT individuals. Mia Quetzal,¹⁶ a participant in the study, highlighted the reasons why data on violence was so limited:

There’s two older persons who are gay, one is 40, one is close to being 40 and the story they’ve been telling me is that they had to fight their way out of the situations that got them discriminated [against]. And the story that this other 20 year-old one tells me is that some of them got raped, two of them got raped by different persons. They couldn’t tell their parents. They were shy, they were scared to tell anybody or even go to the police and report what was happening to them. So they just kept it to themselves …

The Criminal Code … has been used as a tool for police to discriminate and not hear our reports. Or if we go to the police station and try to make a report, the only thing they will do to us is mock us, laugh at us, and we feel intimidated. We won’t continue on to the report.

The research taught us that we needed to better understand the requirements for structural interventions, including: the need to establish rights enforcement and protection mechanisms; increase our knowledge about subsidiary laws; refine our monitoring and evaluation strategies; and build our political capacity to address protection from violence concerns. Interviews with community members and allies highlighted the challenges faced by LGBT people, as well as revealing the impact of UNIBAM’s advocacy. Inspiring methods of resilience were also revealed:

[I’ve been] living here in my village for about ten years now . . . A lot of the village persons look for me to cut hair, the makeup, the nails . . . We have another transgender person in the village, that her earnings come from working with her dad at the bush farm. She goes, she plants crop, she brings in firewood, and she does all the field work with her dad.¹⁷

I am a lesbian mother living in the community of San Pedro town . . . I’ve had a partner now for the past three years, but I’ve been with women for the past ten years . . . I can say that I was very much sheltered . . . living in San Pedro, on the whole it’s very much open here, where the gay community is allowed a little bit more freedom to be who they are; and that’s what I grew up seeing.¹⁸

Not so far from me, like an arm length, there were like three guys and two ladies, and they were talking in Spanish: ‘Sodom and Gomorrah, and this UNIBAM, and Belize, and my children’ . . . and this guy came in front of me and said, ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’. I spoke my mind . . . I looked at him and I said, ‘Not today. You never bring me down today. No way, ’cause God loves me’.¹⁹

Although the case had been filed on 24 September 2010, it was not until February 2011 that it drew media interest. Recognising the need for broader support, UNIBAM joined WIN-Belize. It was our belief that should women’s rights be eroded, LGBT issues would also be open to attack. We began by collecting information on the anti-abortion group, Voices for Life. In 2010, they joined a group led by right-wing pastor, Scott Stirm (Jubilee Ministries/Belize Action), to oppose sexual and reproductive rights and LGBT rights. They started a petition that sought to roll back the current abortion law. The National Advocacy Working Group (NAWG) worked to find out the nature of the petition, while the LGBT community monitored efforts by Voices for Life in the Cayo and Belize districts. In 2010, NAWG developed a brief that provided data and policy recommendations on women’s health, which was submitted to the prime minister’s office. Subsequently, the prime minister called WIN’s executive director and made a commitment to not change the abortion law. It was our first success using a coalition strategy against religious-right members, a strategy that we would continue to build on.

In 2013 Belize’s cabinet approved the gender policy as a framework to look at the needs of men and women. The policy addressed health, education, wealth and employment, gender-based violence, power and decision-making. It had five priority areas guided by principles. One of these − which spoke of ‘respect for diversity’ − included sexual orientation in its definition. The response of many in the LGBT movement to this was expressed best by Dennis Craft:²⁰ ‘the recent gender policy, the inclusion of sexual orientation into that policy was like a huge, huge, huge win, it’s a big thing . . . So, even though there’s a law that says that we can’t be gay, there is a policy that . . . gives us equal rights’.

The gender policy ignited protests organised by religious fundamentalists. Opposition to the policy was based on the belief that it was supporting the ‘gay agenda’. There were also efforts to derail a teacher’s manual that spoke of comprehensive sexuality education.²¹ One WIN-Belize organisation reported that it had lost donations from a church group who disagreed with its support of the gender policy.

As one of WIN’s members, UNIBAM worked to define a common position on the gender policy and issued a media statement in the midst of the protests against the gender policy. One of our partners, Tikkun Olam Belize, an NGO that advocates for sex workers’ rights, organised a protest to support the gender policy (Channel5Belize.com, 2013b). An interview conducted with one of the organisers, Elisa Castellanos,²² for Envisioning reveals how significant that experience was:

We went to all the media houses in Orange Walk and we were on radio shows and talk shows, so we did as much promotion as we could … We took all the parts of the gender policy and wrote it on Bristol board, and then Aaron [a UNIBAM member] and his group stood in the middle . . . We made straight people hold the flag along with Aaron to show that unity, and there were people just looking. And I felt in that instant that it was worth it … Somebody called me and said, ‘oh but you have the LGBT flag and it’s sending a wrong message’, and I said, I will not tell people to bring down their flags because that is a representation of who they are and … they have every right to fly the flag that they want and I will hold it along with them.

With assistance from NAC, the creation of Generation Zero, a coalition of like-minded organisations and individuals concerned about human rights and discrimination, took place during a conference on vulnerable groups. The NAC was able to offer us a long-term base for policy and advocacy engagement, which facilitated institutional backing for the challenge against Section 53. Prior to these efforts, community meetings were held at the NAC secretariat to map out a communication plan that eventually led to the creation of virtual communities. It was the first time I had seen upper-middle-class people expressing an interest or concern about opposition to Section 53. We created a ‘war room’ where we plotted strategies to counter our opponents. The NAC supported our knowledge mobilisation strategy and assisted us in mapping legislative opportunities. It helped us identify allies and opponents within governing bodies, gain access to new research, and advocate for research on violence and discrimination against MSM. The NAC also backed UNIBAM’s evolution at the policy table not just as a commissioner but as an executive member of the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM), and a member of the wider CCM representing MSM. It facilitated access to the UN Special Envoy for HIV in the Caribbean and gave us a map of the political directorate who make decisions in cabinet.

Our supporters documented religious extremists’ comments about the gender policy and our members were able to meet with the leader of the opposition, Francis Fonseca, in 2013, after he had previously met with evangelical opponents. We participated in private sessions with evangelicals to engage them on their position, including a meeting of the Belize Chamber of Commerce, which included presentations from Pastors Scott Stirm and Louis Wade Jr (talk show host and Christian youth motivational speaker), and one with Judith Alpuche, chief executive of the human development and social transformation ministry. Others debated the position of gender policy opponents on the aforementioned Se La vee social media site. We wrote to the prime minister’s office asking for a meeting, and later documented every comment he made regarding the gender policy. Our conclusion was that he would support the gender policy and would not remove the principle that called for respect for diversity. Ultimately, most of the gender policy’s content was preserved.

The opposition − culture wars

Opposition to the gender policy and to decriminalisation of same-sex intimacy and the constitutional challenge to Section 53 came from the media, particularly The Amandala, the largest independent newspaper in Belize, and PlusTV in Belmopan. The newspaper published an online poll on the Section 53 case saying that people could vote several times a day (the result in 2011 led to claims that 78 per cent of Belizeans did not support changing the law). Opposition also came from religious institutions, including a mass against UNIBAM organised by the Catholic Church in 2013.

The mobilisation of Christian fundamentalists had particular impact. The case against Section 53 rendered our opponents visible for the first time including: Pastor Scott Stirm (Jubilee Ministries/Belize Action); Maria Zabaneh (Voices for Life/Belize Action);²³ Pastor Eugene Crawford (Belize Association of Evangelical Churches); Patrick Andrews Jones (Peoples United Party [PUP] and co-host of a popular TV show Rise and Shine); Pastor Louis Wade Jr (also co-host of Rise and Shine and Christian youth motivational speaker); Simeon Lopez, then Mayor of Belmopan; minister of public works (2008−12), Anthony ‘Boots’ Martinez (2011); and Julius Espat, then campaign manager for the opposition party People’s United Party (PUP), to name just a few. It was Scott Stirm’s Belize Action, among others, who led the way in ensuring Catholic, Evangelical and Anglican churches joined together as interested parties on the side of the government in the case to oppose the challenge to Section 53.

When Belize’s Evangelical Association, through Belize Action, started to organise protests against the gender policy and the Section 53 case, we monitored social media. In their first ‘constitutional march’ in the district of Punta Gorda, one of our supporters filmed an effigy at the front of the march, a cardboard figure of a hanging man labelled UNIBAM. Allies posted the video clip on the virtual group Se La vee, which has over 2,000 members. Members of the LGBT community, frustrated by the social message of Belizean church groups, showed that they were prepared to resist their efforts to perpetuate discrimination. Speaking about the constitutional marches in 2013, Aaron Mai²⁴ stated:

If the march ever comes to my region of the country, then I would be out there with my gay flag and I would take a stand against the church. And so on the day of the march, I decided to get on my scooter and I put on my gay flag and I went out there and I followed the march . . . And I was so stirred up that (when) I was asked by the media to have an interview, and I decided to go on national TV and to express my frustration and my story against the church and their movement . . . There was a lot on my heart that needed to come out and I released what was in me to the religious media that came to march in my region.

Eventually, Minister Allamila spoke out and condemned the effigy as dangerous (Jones, 2013). Our allies pounced on this issue on Facebook, documenting our opponents’ comments and storing them on file for future use. This work effectively held our opponents accountable and called on them to retract their incendiary language.

It also became clear that fundamentalist opposition came from the ‘dominionist’ movement. Scott Stirm, who was born in Texas and moved to Belize as a young adult, demonstrated his views when he posted a reply to a thread started by Nefretery Nancy Marin on Facebook:²⁵

I am grateful for the truths we were taught in Youth With A Mission about the ‘7 influencing areas of society’, once called the ‘Mind Moulders’ that shape society, now also called, ‘The 7 Mountains’. Church, Education, Family, Gov’t, Business & Commerce, Media, Arts & Entertainment. Loren Cunningham taught us that when the Church pulls back from any of these areas, then darkness takes over!

Dominionist theology is a term developed by sociologist Sara Diamond (1990, 1995) to describe a growing political tendency in the US Christian right that encourages Christians, as mandated by God, to be active in civil society to dominate the political process and to occupy secular institutions (see also, Theocracy Watch, 2006). Professor Didi Herman (1997) examines the history of US-based white Christian extremism, including the Moral Majority founded by Jerry Falwell, and traces a shift to active political engagement as a response to, and opposition to, the social and civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s which sought to advance rights for women, racialised people and lesbians and gays.

The incendiary narrative stemming from the Christian fundamentalist opposition in Belize did not slow down until a report, published by the Southern Poverty Law Centre (2013), exposed their links to the US-based fundamentalist Christian right. The report, which identified Stirm as associated with dominionist theology, was covered by a national newscast in July 2013, which claimed ‘that there were extremist right wing religious groups who were influencing the local Christian organisations in their campaign to resist what has been called the “homosexual agenda”’ (7NewsBelize.com, 2013d). The newscast also reported on Stirm’s response, in his own press release, that the report was a weak attempt timed to attempt to distract the nation from a month of constitutional marches across Belize. Stirm commented further that the marches ‘mobilized almost 10,000²⁶ Belizeans to stand for constitutional values and [were] opposed to the 2013 Gender Policy in its present form’ (ibid.). Stirm also restated that his organisation is a wholly funded by Belizeans who stand for strong family values. He did, however, admit that the US-based Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and Centre for Family and Human Rights (C-FAM) provided advice, legal assistance and strategy, and he noted that: ‘they are assisting in cases all over the world in the homosexual global attack on morality & family values’ (ibid.).

The revelation of ADF’s support of Belize Action was a sign that the culture wars had arrived in the country and that US-based Christian fundamentalists were intervening to stop the ‘homosexual agenda’. The ADF was founded in 1994 by 30 prominent Christian leaders in response to what they believed were increasing attacks on religious freedom, and the destruction of the institution of marriage. ‘This vicious propaganda, born and bred by American ideologues, has found fertile soil across the globe’ (Southern Poverty Law Centre, 2013, p. 6). This is significant, especially when we take into consideration influence or links to conservative US-based fundamentalists of additional groups such as Christian Fellowship Lawyers and the Jamaican Coalition for a Healthy Society (JCHS) who are actively opposing decriminalisation across the Caribbean. A JCHS petition against the ‘Justice for All roadmap’ (the anti-discrimination programme of the Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS) influenced Caricom political leaders’ response to decriminalisation in 11 countries with similar laws across the region. The results of their effort led to a call for the roadmap to be refined to make decriminalisation a long-term goal in the region, in essence derailing its commitment to decriminalisation.

National strategy: ‘We are one! In dignity and rights!’

The case was heard from 7 to 10 May 2013. We in UNIBAM fought back against the right-wing opposition with our own daily news coverage. We rallied supporters to vote in our own poll with a differently worded question, and the results showed that over 49 per cent backed changing the law. Our goal was to show our opponents that they did not control the public narrative. UNIBAM had exposed homophobia through media coverage that documented rallies against LGBT rights and decriminalisation at Battlefield Park in 2011, and constitutional marches organised by the religious right around the country in 2013. Never before had a litigation case resulted in prayer meetings across the country, including in front of the Belize Supreme Court.

The LGBT community responded to the right-wing fundamentalists’ campaigns, organising pride parties and pageants, even under severe threat of opposition. Allies joined in TV advertisements, and 1,800 people wore wristbands that read, ‘We are one! In dignity and rights!’, as a symbolic response of resistance. We witnessed protest threats in Orange Walk in 2013 by evangelical groups against the Miss Gay Goddess Pageant:

On Saturday, protestors in favor of the existing laws of Belize took to the streets of Corozal Town in demonstration against the content of the Revised Gender Policy 2013, as well as a constitutional challenge brought against the government by Caleb Orosco [sic], who is seeking to have repealed Section Fifty-three of the Criminal Code. While that religious crusade winded down after several weeks of touring the country, a group of openly gay men was making final preparations for Miss Gay Goddess Belize 2013 later that night. Amid the controversy surrounding the pageant, many have expressed disdain over such flamboyant display of homosexuality, despite the fact that it was being held privately in Belize City (Channel5Belize.com, 2013a)

We produced advertisements with the ‘We are one! In dignity and rights!’ headline, and we created short documentaries on the issue of faith and rights. We participated in talk shows and used our virtual room to plan talking points for public communications. In addition, during the visit of Dr Edward Greene, the UN Special Envoy for HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean, we took advantage of the dialogue initiated by Caricom to revisit the abovementioned Justice for All roadmap. Dr Greene informed us that faith-based leaders were ready to talk. Later, in March 2015, we met the head of the Evangelical Association of Churches, the Methodists and the Anglican canon, Leroy Flowers – a past president of the Belize Council of Churches – to discuss our concerns about discrimination and violence.

The LGBT community and allies joined the fightback with an effective social media strategy, creating virtual rooms like BCC (Belizeans for the Constitutional Challenge), a community education group which monitored the media and opponents’ comments on Facebook prior to, during and after the trial. This helped us to profile our opponents’ comments which in turn informed the ‘We are one! In dignity and rights!’ campaign. When Belize presented its national report for the UN’s UPR, it was also shared directly with an audience of 800 people on BCC. However, our group’s comments were infiltrated and showed up on opponents’ sites, so we were forced to cut all 800 names from the list and begin again, ending up with 320 people in the community education group. By 2014, the e-library had collected 8,000 articles from around the world that anyone in the group could access. We created a group called BCC Planning, which linked allies from across sectors, and together we divided up the tasks and countered Belize Action’s opposition.

Individuals provided technical support, negotiated language on sexuality, and provided information that helped to discredit our opponents. A healthy debate ensued between opponents and supporters, and LGBT issues became the hot topic in a Facebook group and generated more than 1,200 comments. Supporters monitored Facebook, identifying any libellous statements or any engaged in hate propagation. If any threatening statements were encountered, Facebook would be asked to shut down the account or remove the comment. This monitoring and evaluation was never more effective than when we identified some comments in the international media (chiefly The Guardian) that Boots Martinez, the minister of works, had made in 2011 (they had previously been reported in the national media):

My position is that God never placed anything on me for me to look at a man and jump on a man. I’ll be clear on it . . . How would you decriminalise that, I am sorry, but that is law. Not only is the law made by man, that is a law made from the Bible. Why you think God made a man and a woman, man has what woman wants, and woman has what man wants, it’s as simple as that. I’ll fight tooth and nail to keep that law. (Williams, 2011)

The intense media attention raised the profile of the case and the work of UNIBAM. Kathleen Esquivel,²⁷ NAC chair, underlined this point: ‘Ten years ago, very few people outside the NGO community even knew that UNIBAM existed. I don’t think there’s anyone in Belize now that doesn’t know (of it now).’ Another interviewee referred to the way that ‘UNIBAM’ was being used as another word for ‘gay’:

I wore my skinny jeans with my biker boots and y’know a tight top . . . So I was there taking photos and then there was this young woman . . . and she just kinda like looked at me … and she’s like, ‘So, what, you’re UNIBAM too?’ Y’know and I looked at her and I was like, ‘Do you even know what that word means?’²⁸

Others spoke about the impact on public discourse of the debate and discussion about the case:

It’s been three years [since the case was filed]? Wow! It’s hard to imagine that it’s been three years, first of all. My understanding has grown tremendously, and I think, so too has the national consciousness, the discourse. It’s not always been intellectual or healthy, but there’s a discussion occurring that has never occurred before.²⁹

There were requests for interviews from international media as well as speaking engagements in Washington DC, which were supported by the Human Rights Campaign and the Swiss ambassador to Mexico.

Moving forward

The work of UNIBAM succeeded in winning political support from both Prime Minister Barrow and the leader of the opposition, Francis Fonseca. This is a milestone in Belize’s public discourse and, indeed, for any Caribbean leader. In a media interview, Prime Minister Barrow said:

There can be no discrimination in terms of employment opportunities, in terms of access to healthcare, in terms of the services that the society offers. This administration certainly is not concerned about what happens in the bedrooms of the employees of the government, there are constitutional protections for public officers, properly appointed, and even with respect to open vote workers there can never be any kind of interference, any kind of surveillance, any kind of concern about the sexual orientation of the employees of government. ( 7NewsBelize.com, 2013b)

Four months later, on Independence Day, Prime Minister Barrow followed up with: ‘Government will . . . fully respect the right of the churches to propagate their understanding of the morality, or immorality, of homosexuality. But what Government cannot do is to shirk its duty to ensure that all citizens, without exception, enjoy the full protection of the law’ (7NewsBelize.com, 2013e).

The leader of the opposition, Francis Fonseca, also offered his thoughts when interviewed a week before the 2013 OAS General Assembly: ‘I am the leader of a political party that embraces all Belizeans. I have Belizeans in my party who are homosexuals, and we embrace all Belizeans’ (7NewsBelize.com, 2013a). This led to UNIBAM engaging with the foreign minister, and indirectly engaging with the Council of Churches and the IACHR, developments which opened up discussions on policy development which adheres to the principle of respect for diversity.

Unfortunately, we were unable to turn the political tone of 2013 into substantive legislative change in 2015 that would address discrimination and violence, or enforce rights and protection for all citizens. Gaining substantial recognition/awareness in a country of 370,300 people (Statistical Institute of Belize, 2015) with unknown quantifiable LGBT citizens, remains a challenge. In conclusion, as I write, a court decision is still pending on the Section 53 constitutional challenge. Filed in 2010, the case was finally heard between 7 and 10 May 2013. Three years later, there has been no decision from the Supreme Court. In the meantime, the environment is changing as people reflect more on the prejudice and the propaganda they hear. We at UNIBAM continue to lead the way, with actions like our 2015 conference which looked at the intersection of rights for the first time.

Editors’ update:

On 10 August 2016, after this chapter was written, the Supreme Court released its decision. The Hon. Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin accepted all grounds claimed in the constitutional case Caleb Orozco v. attorney general of Belize. He ruled that Section 53 violated Orozco’s rights under the constitution and ordered it to be ‘read down’, thus legalising same-sex intimacy between consenting adults in private. He also added that constitutional protection on the basis of ‘sex’ includes ‘sexual orientation’. This historic decision has been widely celebrated, and has significant implications for similar legal challenges across the region.

Orozco’s response to the decision points to the progress made through activism: ‘Our judicial system has been proven to be robust and unprejudiced. This judgment should give other oppressed groups the confidence to speak up and stand up for themselves in situations of human rights abuses in the way I have’ (GLAAD, 2016).

However, after initially stating that it would not appeal the decision, the Belize government reversed its position following a meeting with church leaders. On 16 September 2016, it filed an appeal³⁰ narrowly based on two parts of the decision: against inclusion of ‘sexual orientation’ under ‘sex’; and against the judge’s finding that Section 53 was inconsistent with the right to freedom of expression. Religious bodies also appealed, including an appeal by the Roman Catholic Church of Belize that challenged all grounds of the decision including privacy, dignity and equality. However the religious groups dropped their appeal and in March 2018, the Roman Catholic Church withdrew their appeal and removed itself from the case. The Belize government then also dropped its appeal – and the judgment stands.³¹

References

Collom, K. (2014) ‘25,000 protest in Jamaica against “homosexual agenda”’, China Topix, 16 Jun., available at: www.chinatopix.com/articles/3612/20140701/25–000-protest-jamaica-against-homosexual-agenda.htm#ixzz3w8EZARXx (accessed 17 Feb. 2018).

Daily Express (2011) ‘Transgender Belizean cries discrimination’, 14 Apr. www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Transgender_Belizean_cries_discrimination-119892154.html (accessed 22 Feb. 2018).

Diamond, S. (1990) Spiritual Warfare (Montréal, PQ: Black Rose Books).

— (1995) Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States (New York, NY: Guilford Publishing).

GLAAD (2016) ‘In historic step, Belize court scraps law targeting gay and bisexual men’, 10 Aug., available at: www.glaad.org/blog/historic-step-belize-court-scraps-law-targeting-gay-and-bisexual-men (accessed 17 Feb. 2018).

Herman, D. (1997) The Anti-Gay Agenda, Orthodox Vision and the Christian Right (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press).

Jamaica Gleaner (2013) ‘Where is the justice, Mr Golding?’, letter to the editor, 15 Nov., available at: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20131115/letters/letters5.html (accessed 17 Feb. 2018).

Jones, P.E. (2013) ‘Minister Lisel Alamilla expresses grave concerns’, West Vision, 11 Jul., available at: www.westvision.bz/minister-lisel-alamilla-expresses-grave-concerns/ (accessed 22 Feb. 2018).

Northwestern University (2014) ‘Belize’s responsibility to its LGBT citizens: an assessment of the treatment of the lesbian gay bisexual and transgender community in Belize and laws inhibiting equal rights’, 10 Dec.

Southern Poverty Law Center (2013) ‘Dangerous liaisons: the American religious right and the criminalisation of homosexuality in Belize’, available at: https://www.splcenter.org/20130709/dangerous-liaisons (accessed 22 Feb. 2018).

Statistical Institute of Belize (2015) ‘Annual Report 2015’, available at: http://sib.org.bz/publications/annual-reports/ (accessed 22 Feb. 2018).

Theocracy Watch (2006) ‘Dominionism and dominion theology’, available at: www.theocracywatch.org/dominionism.htm (accessed 22 Feb. 2018).

United Belize Advocacy Movement and Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights (2013) ‘Human rights violations of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) people in Belize’, submitted to the 107th session of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, Geneva, available at: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/BLZ/INT_CCPR_IFS_BLZ_14350_E.pdf (accessed 22 Feb. 2018).

Williams, Zoe (2011) ‘Gay rights: A world of inequality’, The Guardian, 13 Sep., available at: www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/13/gay-rights-world-of-inequality (accessed 17 Feb. 2018).

Television news reports

Caricom.org (2014) ‘Regional news, Belize observes World AIDS Day with goal of getting to ZeroHIV’, 5 Dec., available at: http://caricom.org/communications/view/belize-observes-world-aids-day-with-goal-of-getting-to-zerohiv (accessed 13 Feb. 2018).

Channel5Belize.com (2011) ‘Minister Boots Martinez catfight “tooth and nail” with UNIBAM’, 14 Sep., available at: http://edition.channel5belize.com/archives/60793 (accessed 17 Feb. 2018).

— (2012) ‘Ministry of Education recalls manual that had pro-gay remarks’, 13 Sep., available at: http://edition.channel5belize.com/archives/75834 (accessed 17 Feb. 2018).

— (2013a) ‘Miss Gay Goddess Belize 2013’, 22 Jul., available at: http://edition.channel5belize.com/archives/88350 (accessed 17 Feb. 2018).

— (2013b) ‘Pro-gay protest to be held in the north’, 1 Aug., available at: http://edition.channel5belize.com/archives/88790 (accessed 17 Feb. 2018).

7NewsBelize.com (2013a) ‘Opp. leader Fonseca doesn’t expect Guats to hold referendum in 2014’, 29 May, available at: www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=25639 (accessed 13 Feb. 2018).

— (2013b) ‘PM says gender policy not law’, 30 May, available at: www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=25663&frmsrch=1 (accessed 17 Feb. 2018).

— (2013c) ‘Pastor Stirm: We don’t need those types of allies’, 27 Jun., available at: www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=25903 (accessed 17 Feb. 2018).

— (2013d) ‘Stirm strikes back at SPLC’, 29 Jul., available at: www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=26163 (accessed 17 Feb. 2018).

— (2013e) ‘PM Barrow uses Independence Day platform to support equal treatment for all, gays included’, 23 Sep., available at: www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=26598&frmsrch=1 (accessed 17 Feb. 2018).

Documentary film

Telling Our Stories (Belize Portraits section) (2014) (Belize and Canada: United Belize Advocacy Movement and Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights), available at: http://envisioning-tellingourstories.blogspot.com (accessed 17 Feb. 2018). Extracts are cited from interviews with Mia Quetzal, Kainie Manuel, Estrellita Reyes, Dennis Craft, Aaron Mai, Elisa Castellanos, Kathleen Esquivel and Imani Fairweather-Morrison.

______________

1 Caleb Orozco v. attorney general of Belize. Caleb Orozco, executive director of UNIBAM, was the sole applicant litigant. In Dec. 2012, Madam Justice Arana struck out UNIBAM as an applicant to the litigation. Thereafter it joined the litigation as an ‘interested party’. The overall responsibility for the case rested with the University of West Indies Faculty of Law Rights Advocacy Project (U-RAP), see: http://u-rap.org/web2/index.php/2015-09-29-00-40-03/orozco-v-attorney-general-of-belize/item/2-caleb-orozco-v-attorney-general-of-belize-and-others (accessed 17 Feb. 2018).

2 Section 53 states that ‘every person who has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any person or animal shall be liable to imprisonment for ten years.’ The offence does not require lack of consent.

3 U-RAP identified Belize and Guyana as strategic sites for litigation and subsequently initiated two cases: Caleb Orozco v. attorney general of Belize, which challenges Section 53 of the Criminal Code of Belize, and McEwan et al. v. attorney general of Guyana, which challenges Section 153(1)(xlvii) of the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act that makes it an offence for a man to wear ‘female attire’ and for a woman to wear ‘male attire’ in public for an ‘improper purpose’. For more on the Guyana case, also see: DeRoy and Henry, ch. 5, this volume.

4 Lisa Shoman, a lawyer, was Belize’s foreign minister from 2007 to 2008.

5 In addition, The American Foundation for AIDS Research, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Heartland International, the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, ARC International, SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) listserv, and Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights (Envisioning) all helped to expand our knowledge, develop resources, conduct research, and raise awareness of our concerns regionally and internationally.

6 The CVC brings together community leaders and NGOs working with marginalised at-risk Caribbean populations who are especially vulnerable to HIV infection. See: http://cvccoalition.org (accessed 22 Feb. 2018).

7 WIN-Belize is an umbrella organisation of NGOs that work in the area of women and children’s issues, including raising awareness about gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS.

8 CariFLAGS dated back to 1997 as a concept, and had its foundation in Caricom’s need to engage MSM communities in its HIV/AIDS response.

9 UNHRC, Universal Periodic Review: Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review Belize, Addendum, Views on Conclusions and/or Recommendations, voluntary commitments and replies presented by the State under review’, 12th session, 18 Sep. 2009, available at: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G09/156/96/PDF/G0915696.pdf?OpenElement (accessed 17 Feb. 2018).

10 UNHRC, ‘Compilation prepared by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in accordance with paragraph 15 (b) of the annex to Human Rights Council Resolution 5/1 and paragraph 5 of the annex to Council resolution 16/21 Belize’, A/HRC/WG.6/17/BLZ/2, 7 Aug. 2013, available at: www.refworld.org/pdfid/5268e33f4.pdf (accessed 17 Feb. 2018).

11 OAS, ‘Human rights, sexual orientation, and gender identity and expression’, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, General Assembly resolution, fourth plenary session, 5 Jun., see www.oas.org/en/iachr/lgtbi/docs/AG-RES2863-XLIV-O-14eng.pdf (accessed 22 Feb. 2018).

12 The LGBTTTI coalition is a partnership of organisations, whose strategic goal is political visibility, advocacy and mobilising, to ensure the full and systematic commitment of the OAS and its regional human rights protection system, to advocate for and defend LGBTI human rights in the Americas. The first meeting took place in Panama City in May 2007, during the OAS’s 37th General Assembly. Today the coalition involves more than 27 activists from 23 countries of the region.

13 See PM 155/13 – Caleb Orozco, Belize, 29 May 2013, available at: www.oas.org/en/iachr/lgtbi/protection/precautionary.asp (accessed 20 Mar. 2018).

14 For general information about precautionary measures, see: http://oas.org/en/iachr/decisions/about-precautionary.asp (accessed 20 Mar. 2018).

15 OAS, ‘Human rights situation of LGBTI persons in Belize’, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights [hearing] 28 Mar., see www.oas.org/es/cidh/audiencias/advanced.aspx?lang=en (accessed 22 Feb. 2018).

16 Interviewed on 16 Jul. 2013 by Caleb Orozco, UNIBAM and Envisioning. An excerpt is included in the Belize Portraits section of the Telling Our Stories (2014) documentary series.

17 Ibid.

18 Kainie Manuel interviewed on 3 Sep. 2013 by Caleb Orozco, UNIBAM and Envisioning.

19 Estrellita Reyes interviewed on 8 Sept. 2013 by Caleb Orozco, as above.

20 Interviewed on 25 Aug. 2013 by Caleb Orozco, as above.

21 For more information see Channel5Belize.com (2012).

22 Interviewed on 2 Aug. 2013 by Caleb Orozco, as above.

23 Maria Zabaneh (2011) speaking at ‘Take a Stand Rally’, Dec. 2011, stated: ‘The body of Christ today in Belize is united on the issues that threaten the divine laws of God.’ See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEVBEl6eNBs (accessed 22 Feb. 2018).

24 Interviewed on 16 Jul. 2013 by Caleb Orozco, UNIBAM and Envisioning. An excerpt is included in the Belize section of the Telling Our Stories (2014) documentary series.

25 To Marin’s question ‘If God fearing men walk away from politics and leave it to corrupt and sinful men to lead us [. . .]’, Scott Cheryl Stirm posted the first reply on 17 Jun. 2014. The page can no longer be accessed. However, UNIBAM documented the exchange on their blog, see: http://unitedbelizeadvocacymovement.blogspot.com/2014/06/a-review-of-lies-of-our-belizean.html.

26 Stirm’s numbers may not be reliable, others estimated approximately 4,000 people participated nationwide.

27 Interviewed on 28 Aug. 2013 by Caleb Orozco, UNIBAM and Envisioning.

28 Dennis Craft interviewed on 25 Aug. 2013 by Caleb Orozco, as above.

29 Imani Fairweather-Morrison interviewed on 30 Aug. 2013 by Caleb Orozco, as above.

30 Attorney general of Belize v. Caleb Orozco.

31 Chief Justice Benjamin shares his overview of the case at a forum, LGBT + Equality and the Rule of Law organised by Kaleidoscope Trust 2018 on 12 June 2018. Available at: www.blackrock.com/investing/search/video-feature-results?videoId=20180517_LGBT (accessed 10 July 2018).