Gay rights
Blue Iguana writes: Bravo, Belize! Once again, love has quashed hate. As is the case in a landmark ruling adjudged by the Supreme Court of Belize that found it was unconstitutional to uphold laws criminalising sexual relations between consensual males. Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin stated that he “could not make a decision based on majority and public views”, according to Breaking News Belize.
Despite boldly acting in discordance with the mainstream opinion, the decision will now ultimately nullify any pre-existing legislation that strictly prohibits same-sex sexual activity. Additionally, it will serve to defend citizens from discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.
In any democracy, for example, Cayman, the aligned viewpoint of the majority trumps that of the minority; however, from an ethical standpoint, when the popular opinion promotes oppression, marginalisation and stigmatisation of an extremely vulnerable segment of society it undermines any meaningfulness associated with our people being “Caymankind”.
The unlawfulness of homosexual acts is prevalent in the majority of our regional neighbouring territories. With the exception of the Dutch and French Caribbean, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, equal rights are not currently afforded constitutionally to those who identify as homosexual.
Such illegality is absolutely absurd, archaic and antiquated beyond fathomable proportions – especially as it constitutes an infringement on the human rights of consenting adults.
Public opponents of LGBTs receiving the same universal rights often misperceive that it’s an “attack” on the moral and spiritual values of the community.
Not in the slightest – and the proof can be found northward.
That’s right – Cuba.
Our communist neighbour is a predominantly religious island. In 2010, census data revealed that over seventy percent of Cubans have a religious belief, with approximately sixty percent identifying as an adherent of the Roman Catholic denomination.
Neither same-sex marriage nor recognition of same-sex unions are enshrined in law.
(Wow! Doesn’t that sound familiar, MLAs?)
Notwithstanding this fact, the Cuban government has managed to implement various social reforms that protect and legally sanction homosexuals the liberty to be free from discrimination.
It doesn’t end there – it gets even more progressive. There’s no doubt you’ve heard of the politically iconic Castro family that governs the island.
Mariela Castro, the daughter of President Raul Castro, is responsible for introducing transgender rights. As Director of the Cuban National Centre for Sex Education, she constantly campaigned publicly for LGBT rights and compassionately utilised her family’s political influence to induce equality for all.
While her efforts gained little traction eleven years ago, a few years later in 2008 the government ratified a measure allowing any Cuban the opportunity to undergo a gender reassignment surgery – free of charge.
Our communist neighbour showed us that religion and gay rights can co-exist in the Caribbean, despite the widespread religiousness and spirituality. Belize showed us that their judiciary is capable of extending love, compassion and legal protection to those who are most vulnerable and victimised.
Equating the acceptance and assimilation of LGBTs to an “attack” on our islands’ social fabric is narrow-minded and only adds to the divisive rhetoric we incessantly hear on a daily basis. When the views of the majority that seek to oppress the minority are upheld – that is not democracy; it is a regressive step back towards colonialism.
Category: Viewpoint
The law is not writings on dead parchments. It is a living law inscribed on the heart of every person that has had the courage to leave eternity and bring light into darkness.
We are not John Smith and Ethel Jones, we are infinite consciousness having an experience in our respective genetic meat suits.
If you cannot fathom this, then monitor your thoughts, who is doing the monitoring?
It is your consciousness which is eternal listening in on your limited, fallible mind.
To gay or not to gay is only relevant to those who do not understand their origin. This may sound daunting, but our natural state is immortal, eternal, invincible and downright bloody impressive.
We need to wake up. Only unconditional love will be left standing. It is one hell of a journey, but well worth it.
Marriage is religious – Civil Unions are legal. I think this is where the line is. My question is what path would an Atheist take? Whatever that path is it’s the same path that would allow two people of the same sex to be as one. I don’t think too many on the bashing side would be all knotted up over it if it was thoroughly explained.
The problem occurs when someone wants to take the religious route to do something that is not sanctified in religion. That’s always going to create issues. The problem is that the religious group will defend that to be “married” is sacred under religious rights and that it calls for a man and a woman as a pre-qualifier.
I don’t know a good example in this but only to say you can’t walk into a Ford dealership and expect to buy a Japanese car normally speaking. That’s not the best example.
Personally I feel all countries could or even should consider offering civil unions and allow as much as possible for all rights that are bestowed on one group to be on the other.
For religious people it’s similar to the difference between being divorced legally or called by most religions a civil divorce and the fact that one can not simply get a divorce and be able to remarry just because of the civil proceeding in some churches.
So….in summary….Same Sex couples should be allowed a Civil Union while religious couples a wedding. The rights should be fundamentally the same…
There already exists a distinction between civil marriage and religious marriage. Many churches do not recognize marriages from other faiths as being valid marriages, despite those marriages still being civil marriages under the law. We don’t need to redefine civil marriages as civil unions to accommodate same-sex marriage, because non-religious marriage has already existed for hundreds of years.
Who cares. So tired of this.
True nah? Sound like a Sunday school class. It’s biology not religion.
Gay rights! Are you crazy! The moon is actually a triangle, the sun isn’t real, the earth is flat and jesus didn’t walk on water, he swam on land. You all are being lied to.
What if the crazy preachers got it all wrong and Jesus wants us to be gay? Crazier things have happened. Remember when good Christians could own slaves? Oops. Yeah, I’m worried about this. What if baby Jesus weeps everytime a man loves a woman? Maybe there was a typo in the book of Genesis and it was supposed to have been Adam and Steve not Adam and Eve. This would explain a lot. I’ve always wondered why there were so many freaky down-low priests and pastors. But don’t panic heterosexual Christians. Like you always say, sexuality is just a choice so turning gay will be easy.
Blessed
Well written article, balanced and fair.
Oh dear Jesus here we go again. Another 200 comments within 72 hours from both the gay bashers/bible thumpers and also those of us actually living in the 21st century.
Hopefully you will be wrong and people will get tired of fighting a totally unnecessary battle.
We live in a massively overpopulated world, so the more gays the better if you ask me.
Whatever gay people do behind closed doors, I don’t care about, but I have a right to protect my children against what I believe is wrong. Cue the overuse of the words bigot and homophobic, but I have the right to have an opinion opposing yours.
your kids should be protected from you…..
ask yourself…what would jeses do?
What’s it got to do with my Honduran gardener?
Although I will ask him later today and report back.
These people can do what they want behind closed doors but when they try to shove their bizarre ways into public life and tell me what I can and cannot do and think it disgusts be. The Christian fundamentalists I mean, with the stress on “mentalist”.
Then don’t send your children behind closed doors. Either yours or your gay friend’s.
Yes you can protect them if you wish but protect them from what. Even if you view it as wrong are you saying that if your children are exposed to homosexuals then they will become homosexual. My goodness you better stop them from watching television, going to school, going to the cinema and the list goes on and on. Better still just stay home in your own little hole and they will be perfectly balanced kids.
What if one of your children is gay?
That would not happen. If it did happen there are excellent institutions in America that can cure the gayness, mainly in the fly-over states for some reason.
As far as I am concerned, I would love them same way. I wad tought to Love one Another and Not judge others. In the end everyone will be judged accordingly. For now, share the Love and live justly with a clean heart.
Protect? What d’you think anyone’s going to do?
I really hope that none of your children turn out to be gay. None of us can predict what path our children will take.
This is whether or not you preach to them, that being gay is wrong. So I hope you know there is no guarantees.
As long as they are not molesting children, consenting adults sexual preferences is their business and no body else.
It continue to baffles me why people make consenting adults sexuality such a focal point.
Focus and speak out strongly on friends, family members and colleagues, who continue to molest and abuse children. Also who continue to rape and abuse non consenting adults.
That is what the focus need to be on. Not consenting adults who choose to be be the same sex.
Hey some on the far left Are the other side of the coin as the far right….both Nazis…let other people have their opinion without bashing them. If everyone gay or straight wants to coexist they need to be able to express themselves and then out of that can come dialogue. To be an effective Christian one needs to be able to reach your brother and sister. To be a decent person one needs to respect each other as people regardless of their color, sex, political, religious or ethinic background. God bless you all and let’s keep.civil
Respect religion? What a joke
There is no doubt in my mind that the issue of Gay Rights is a moral one. The bottom line is that the Bible condemns it, not me. These individuals will have to answer to God for their life style. What I do know is that according to the Bible God destroyed Sodom because of Homosexuality. The gay men of that city wanted to deal with God messengers/angels. They were destroyed and the city on a whole. As for me, I have no personal issues with them. They are all God’s children just as I am a child of his who is very much straight. God commanded our fore-parents to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. That requires male and female to come together. If gays were intended the world would not be populated today. However, like I said, I do not hate those who are gay. I won’t treat them any different than I treat those who are straight. I will love them the same way! That does not mean that I will not tell them what the Bible have to say about their lifestyle.
The law is not meant to reflect your beliefs. The law is meant to protect individuals from your beliefs where your beliefs would deny them the equal protection of the law.
You can believe whatever you’d like, but you act immorally when you deny equal access to the benefits and burdens under the law.
If your biggest fear for your kids is that they’ll find someone to love them unconditionally who just happens to be the same sex then you need help. I’m worried about their health, well being, education etc. If they find someone to love (anyone) along the way then I’m happy for them and their partner no matter the circumstances gender is the least of my worries. It could be worst many of your daughters are out here with guys who are just jobless losers using them, beating them, and driving around town all day in their Kias with another girl in the front seat. I’m not saying that the gay community is anymore upstanding or faithful but at the end of the day we are all humans. Humans are all flawed but I don’t think loving and being loved is a flaw. I’m not sheltering my child from the gay community they’re not out to snatch souls and start a cult. I can’t tell anyone who to love not gay people, not the young girls mentioned above, no one and I certainly won’t judge what people feel in their hearts because having to justify love is a ridiculous thought to me.
The trick is to co-exist peacefully. That’ll never happen while people of different religious belief fight over which imaginery friend is the real one.
I think the true Living God made us all unique. There are some people born so different that the majority would never understand. Only those who listen, truly see, and are aware of their unique differences, could truly understand and appreciate how God made them.
Unfortunately the religious minded have defined God based on what “holy books” and human authorities say is truth. People are taught to follow first these religious authorities instead of their own god-given commonsense and conscience. If God made you with innate qualities to reason and to love, why would you blindly place traditions and church teachings above your intelligence? Why would you degrade and hate another human being who is different from you? Besides books like the Bible have been tampered with throughtout the ages. Before the books became contaminated, there was that holy spirit in mankind, that spirit to discern right from wrong… but who is following God’s Spirit?
I don’t get it. What if you were born male but look like a female and had feelings in you like a female would have. My convictions tells me that God is a God of variety. He didn’t intend people to be one way. He is a God of universal love, peace, democracy, and human dignity. Not advocating mental defilements like greed, lust, pride, envy et cetera … but the real sinners it seems are those who “blindly follow” and exercise no awareness of reality.
12.19pm You say that God “didn’t intend people to be one way. Not advocating mental defilements like greed, lust, pride, envy et cetera “.That include lusting after homosexuals and you should accept that those who oppose homosexuality are part of that variety.You like um , others do not.
I define lust as a craving to satisfy a sensual want, and it is all about “self” and not the other person. It is not love that cares for the other, how the other feel or desire. Lust makes love into a self-centered love, and if it creeps into a marriage or relationship, the partners involve can become very selfish and arguments arise.
Now how I see it, just like a straight couple can be either in a sacrificial true love relationship or a lustful self-centered relationship. So it is possible to have homosexual-type partners in real love relationships, and not together out of lust.
You seem to be associating lust with homosexuality, which I believe is wrong. Homosexuals could be god-fearing and moral people. The problem with religionist is that they like to DEFINE morality by their written texts or authorities, as if these texts and authorities are never subject to errors and misinterpretations.
Not saying religions are absolutely bad or can’t be a source of teaching good morals, preserving cultural pillars … but “you” should be the primary footing for defining what is moralistic. Too often many use the Bible or the Church as the basis of their faith or morals. That’s fine. But can’t God as well show you His will through science, nature, and your self? And do you have to put your self last, rely on the hearsay of others over your own revelation and experiences. In crafting your moral fabric you need to have a balance between your god-given endowments and what others say.
Our communist neighbor has showed us that gay rights and religion can co-exist. In the name of the Pasta, and of the Sauce, and of the Holy Meatballs, Ramen.
Btw anything can co-exist. The trick is to co-exist in harmony and religions will never co-exist in harmony as long as each side fights over which imaginery wizard is real. That said, praise the Flying Spaghetti Monster, all other gods are fake, if you but accept FSM into your heart, his noodly appendages will touch you.
I can only thank you for this refreshing read. Now I can only hope it will be read and more importantly, UNDERSTOOD, by many on our fine Islands.
Thank you!
Btw the pope is evil.