No to Gender Policy Road Show takes on Dangriga
There have been pro-constitution, anti-gender and homosexuality marches as well as protests in Orange Walk, Toledo and Cayo. They’ve been organized by local evangelical churches in those areas with help and support from organizations like Belize Action and Belize Can. The purpose has been to send a message to the powers that be in Belmopan that the gender policy as it stands will not be tolerated. With thousands coming out in Toledo and San Ignacio the movement seemed to be picking up some serious momentum heading into Dangriga, where a march and rally were planned for Saturday afternoon. Mike Rudon headed south and has the story.
Mike Rudon, Reporting
The pro-constitution march scheduled to leave the entrance to Dangriga at three Saturday afternoon moved off right on time, but that’s about the only thing positive to be said about it. We can’t even be accused of manipulating the numbers, because there were no numbers to manipulate. There were no placards, no signs, no floats, no live bands, no drums, no chanting and no songs. Coming off showings of an estimated two thousand inCayo and three to four thousand in Toledo it was a dismal showing. But still, the ten or so persons who came by bus from one of the communities on the Hummingbird Highway marched through the main street of Dangriga to the Princess Royal Park where a rally was scheduled. Dozie Ifeanyichineke organized the march and rally and says the problem with the numbers was caused by a misunderstanding with the time, but the objective was clear.
Dozie Ifeanyichineke
Dozie Ifeanyichineke, Organizer
“The objective here is very clear. It is one of saying that the people of this nation have issues with the gender policy and basically it is just saying let’s hold on a little bit and our voices are the same as that of the nation…take out the things that are contentious in that thing…”
Eventually the placards did show up at the park, but the significant numbers never did. Frontline figures pastors Louis Wade and Scott Stirm were there, as was Patrick Menzies. So why the low turnout? We wondered if it had anything to do with an effigy labeled UNIBAM and hanging from a noose which was prominent in the Toledo march and got much negative scrutiny during the week.
Scott Stirm
Scott Stirm, Pastor
“First and foremost that was a terrible mistake and there were four thousand people there…..I didn’t see it myself…had I seen it I would have told them to take it down but we did issue a press release on that just stating that was absolutely wrong, it was distasteful and should never have happened so I apologized for that even though it wasn’t something that we did but that is completely contrary to the statement of what this is about.”
Stirm refutes any assertion that the message being sent out contains any hate or homophobia. He says that all the hate is coming from the homosexual side.
Scott Stirm
“We sent out a memo just asking everybody let’s keep our message positive and proactive cause this is not a hate thing…it’s not a homophobic thing but you’ve seen it as well as we’ve seen it – anytime you speak anything against these people they automatically call you a hater although there was a video released recently where these guys were beating a street preacher and they were from an organization called NO HATE and so it’s very hypocritical how whenever anybody speaks anything to them that they call it hate. Well we say disagreement is not hate. People have some very strong convictions in this area because homosexuality is unnatural.”
By early evening about two hundred people were at the rally, among them very prominent P.U.P. Area Representatives Rodwell Ferguson and Ivan Ramos. Although the P.U.P. hasn’t taken a firm stance on the issue, the position of these two politicians couldn’t be clearer.
Rodwell Ferguson
Rodwell Ferguson, Area Representative, Stann Creek West
“It’s the whole homosexuality business because the people of this district believe in a man and a woman. They don’t believe in any other alternative but a man and a woman. So when we were brought up we were taught that there are females and there are males. So I came here to give one hundred percent because the people tell me Mr. Ferguson we are not supporting it.”
Ivan Ramos, Area Representative, Dangriga
Ivan Ramos
“I am in full support of the agenda, what is going on out here today. For me it is a matter of going against the natural principles of God, of what we know about humanity. So for me it’s just that. This is my understanding of life…that we ought to contribute in the natural way to life itself. And that is what this is all about. And you can’t go against that. If you are a homosexual or a lesbian then I think you ought to know that you are not contributing in the manner that God intended us to be. And that’s where I stand.”
Rodwell Ferguson
“I am not afraid to take a position. As I put on Facebook if it will cost me my election career I will stand for righteousness. So at the end of the day if the Party comes out with a position the people of the south will remain with their position that we are against this issue.”
Apart from the usual pep-rally type addresses on God, homosexuality and the gender policy, there was also a presentation on the constitutional and legal implications of the gender policy by Audrey Matura-Shepherd. Mike Rudon for News Five.
I glad regular belizeans di stand up against di battyman them. Elsewhere people fraid of b@%$&man and let them tek over them country. After that everybody will think it is fashionable to be b@%$&man and all unu sons going to try it. Just like drugs if you decriminalise it everybody want to try it. Speak out against evil now.
The protestors should be aware of how the “transgendered” part of the homosexual movement plays itself out in other societies. In the United States for example boys as young as six are allowed to dress up as little girls and get to use the little girls room despite having the “equipment” of males.
Little girls in the United States have to use the same bathroom as those little boys who dress as girls. Mind you it’s not everywhere in the United States but it is a growing movement and just like so called gay marriage it is part of the International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered (LGBT) agenda.
In the United States in the state of Washington a woman is being sued right now because she owns a flower shop and refused to participate in a gay wedding by providing flowers for the ceremony. So, that is the type of stuff on the International LGBT agenda. It’s not going to be enough for them to just have so called gay marriage codified in the laws of Belize but eventually anyone who refuses to participate in such ceremonies through their business or even churches who refuse to rent out spaces for such ceremonies could be subject to legal action. In that way it represents a threat to religious freedom.
I wish someone would ask the homosexual activists why they list Lesbian in this whole LGBT title as I though the term gay when used to refer to homosexuals referred to both male and female homosexuals. So shouldn’t it really be GBT?
GOB should respect the Human Rites of it’s citizens, and so should all citizens respect the rites of others to live there lives as they please. God’s laws are’ love they neighbor as you love your-self’
In psychology , we learn that those people who hate are those that are afraid of becoming one.
The Sexual orientation of any person is there since conception. It was created by God, as we are not Perfect, but good in his creations.
It would be interesting to find out how much of the push for the homosexual agenda does come from outside sources particularly through the United States Government.
The LGBT is victimizing Christians and non-Christians who believe in God and or what God stands for. God is not only loving but just also. LGBT community is smearing into our faces that God is love so we have to love ^&*&*. Well, we still love them, but we hate the devilish crap theyre putting down peoples throats. People, God is love, however he is Just as well. All through the Bible we can see his righteousness. He will not simply pass over the fornicators, thieves, liars, Homo’s, etc and say, “Oh I love you, so I will forgive you”…Nonesense, that is not what Justice is. Maybe humans are that way, but not God, as we clearly see in the Bible. If I steal $2 Mil from my neighbor, he will not simply tell me, Oh, I love you, so, go on and have fun with the money, NEVER!!! Being gay is not only wrong, but AGAINST THE ORDER OF NATURE!!!
Its all about FEAR – The world will end – we all will die and we all will rot gay or straight OK. @sick and tired? take a break, I see no recruitment going on. If you sons gay then so be it. Fashionable? how do you wear your gayness? as per May, girl, you have issues – apparently you cannot remember that women in the bible are lesser beings than men so technically you should not even have a voice. You want to follow the bible – then keep your mouth shut! You all behave like the gays will come tek we yo men, yo sons, you bibles, yo preachers. Read the bible again, and don’t skip from one verse to the next. The resounding voice is LOVE – love your neighbors, – In the end you will realize that Faith is never wrong, but the faithful is.
Glad people are seeing the far reaching effects of this “Gender Policy.” There will be more to come it Belizeans let up on this…
Stirm: ” it was distasteful and should never have happened so I apologized for that even though it wasn’t something that we did but that is completely contrary to the statement of what this is about. ”
If you lead a crowd, you are responsible for everything the crowd does, that’s one of the shortfalls of these ‘marches’. You like the attention of the crowds, but you don’t want to be responsible for all the outcomes of a crowd. That’s the missing link,.. .selfish, hypocritical, inconsistent.
so this statement is an oxymoron: “I apologized for that even though it wasn’t something that we did “