Lately, you've heard a lot from the R-O-C - the Rod Of Correction, a collective of 11 social partners and activist groups who are fighting government on various fronts. One strident activist who wasn't called to the table is Patrick Menzies of Belize Can. At one time, he was in the activist's circle, but his radical pronouncements, and stern ultimatums have sort of left him on the fringe, with the Belize Evangelical Association most recently saying he was on his own. Still, Menzies retains a cluster of religious pastors in his executive - mostly Spanish speaking evangelical preachers, and he relied on that to launch his latest effort - which is based on the central demand for government to withdraw the gender policy completely.
It's called "Occupy Belmopan" - and like the Wall Street movement it borrows its name from, he plans to occupy Independence Plaza at the foot of the National Assembly stairs, starting at 8:00 this morning and continuing until the policy is withdrawn.
Here's how day one went:
Reporter
"What are you really asking for? What are you asking the Prime Minister to do?"
Patrick Menzies - Representatives, Spanish Arm of Evangelist Churches
"We are asking for a retraction of the gender policy. If they want to work with the church, the Evangelicals and put something together so that they can agree on something that their deal, but we want all the LGBT out. We want the women's department to do the women's work and that is that the gender policy should be in the best interest of women. We are 100% on board with the best interest of women, but our constitution does not protect our sexual desires, it protects our people as human beings. We want the constitution respected. We want white, as people are wearing around the country today, we want them to wear white and white ribbon to represent the fact that they stand with us on unity for the constitution to be integral as an integral part of our society, not only because of what it says, but we want it to be followed by our government."
Reporter
"You mentioned 5 things that you are tabling today, what are those 5 things?"
Patrick Menzies
"Number one: that the gender policy be retracted. Number two: that gender be declared as male and female only. Number three: that the Preamble of the Constitution be protected, changed only with a national referendum. Number four: an end to victimization and number five: that what's happening in Belize with the change of section 60 of the criminal code we want that to be fixed because most Belizeans don't know that spanking a child according to UNICEF is child abuse and if you ill-treat a child according to section 60 the minimum time in jail for a child under the age of 12 is 15 years and maximum is life and if the child is over 12, between 12 and 17 that is 10 years in jail - completely ridiculous. A man who commit a crime of sodomy, man who go to bed with man, unnatural act goes to jail for 10 years. If I spank my 14 year old I also go to jail for 10 years."
Our colleagues at Plus TV estimates that approximately 40 protesters showed up today.
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