7 News Belize

PM Laments Emergence Of Prickly Issue
posted (August 18, 2016)
And while oppositions is apparently contorting itself to appease all sides of the issue, the government doesn't have quite that same luxury. It duly opposed the constitutional challenge but after losing in court, Government has made it clear it won't appeal the judgment - vexing the churches, and many in the public who have expressed disgust at the Chief Justice's decision.

And now, the prospect of the even more divisive gay marriage is on the horizon, which will truly test Government's mettle in the extend of its support for individual rights.

Yesterday we asked the Prime Minister if he wished the LGBT community would have left well enough alone and not made the challenge:..

Jules Vasquez
"Is this a case that you would have prefer left well enough alone, in so far as people were doing what they were doing unprosecuted in the privacy of their lives and no one was being arrested or haul before the courts for having sodomy. My question then is would you have preferred that the status quo persists rather than having this case divide society as it has?"

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"Again, nobody ever deny that you are a very clever fellow. Two things: the claimants had every right to go to court. Of course from a political point of view and from a social point of view in so far as this issue has opened up these huge raw gaping wounds. I would have preferred if it would have been otherwise. But I can't be taken as saying by that or meaning by that, that these people ought not to have pursued what they saw as an issue that needed to be litigated. So, they in a democracy and in a society that they feel needed to deal with this particular issue had every right to go to court."

The government says its research shows that persons were prosecuted under Section 53 between 2007 and 2009.

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize