UNIBAM Spokesperson: Tiny Steps Made Officially on LGBT Rights

Today was observed as Pride Day among those in the gay and lesbian community. It is a day when lesbian, gay, bisexual, transvestite and queer persons celebrate their sexuality across the world. We took the opportunity to ask the Executive Director of the United UNIBAM Advocacy Movement, UNIBAM, how the society has matured towards the gay community since the courts ruled in favor of the amendment to Section Fifty-three.

Caleb Orozco

Caleb Orozco, Executive Director, UNIBAM

“Prior to the decision that was made on August tenth, 2016, there were all these Constitutional protests, messages of the sky is falling, and in 2019 when we had the final decision, at the Court of Appeal – crickets, no large marches, nothing. I was pleasantly surprised. Second of all, with the advent of human rights reports sent to Geneva in 2009, the political tone was we needed a political mandate. In 2018, Belize accepted seventeen of nineteen LGBT recommendations – an incredible shift in tone, but deeper than that, in 2013, up until then the Independence Day speech of then Prime Minister Dean Barrow, he – prior to that there was no politician who had ever referenced LGBT in their independence speech but he made it clear what the responsibility of government was. So he set the political tone for what happened in 2020, which was Cabinet endorsement of the Equal Opportunities Bill and the consequential amendments. Granted they didn’t follow up to have a first reading in Parliament, but its an incredible shift from the optics of value to the commitment of substance. There is a shift to try appear more inclusive in governance and so we need to celebrate that.”