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Government Backpedals, Appeases Churches On Gender Policy
posted (May 28, 2013) 
12 days ago, we told you about the National Gender Policy and at that time, our report alluded to the wording of one heading, Respect For Diversity. It says, and we quote, "the population is comprised of persons of all ages who come from diverse races, cultures, ethnicities, faiths, sexual orientations, socio-economic situations and behavioral lifestyles. All policies and programmes must therefore reflect this reality of diversity among the Belizean populace and customary, religious and cultural practices must be subject to the right of equality," end quote.
Well that's set off a firestorm of controversy among the Christian right – who say that those "diverse sexual orientations" and their "right of equality" in "religious and cultural practices" seems to be pushing an agenda of homosexual inclusion in schools and churches.
It's a hot button issue, so much so that it even urged a release from Cabinet today – and we haven't gotten one of those in over a year. And the release finds the conservative Cabinet backpedalling on a document it had already approved. It says, quote, "Cabinet…considered the concern raised by various religious leaders…(and) decided that it was necessary to maintain its policy to respect the reality of Belize's wide range of diversity. Nevertheless, Cabinet did feel that it would do no harm to that policy by omitting the last few words in the final sentence of the paragraph which reads: "'... and customary religious and cultural practices must be subject to the right of equality'". End quote.
And while the gesture of appeasement to the churches is charming, the revised policy declaration seems to change little.
But, GOB isn't the only one back-pedalling. The National Women's Commission – which put forth the Gender Policy Document is "backspacing", as in "delete!" That's after their policy had a telling typo. It talks about government's commitment to quote, "amend existing legislation to legalize and regulate the sex work industry." Legalizing the sex industry? That's a major no-no! And this weekend, Executive Director Ann Marie Williams sent out a release saying, quote, "(the statement was) a complete oversight and should have been omitted." The release explains that, "The statement was introduced into the document in the very early stages of the process as a part of the consultant's first draft….(and reflects) purely technical recommendations."
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