Belize Can will protest concept of Gender Studies Dept.

Aug 19, 2013

Belize Can marches on the National Assembly at eight-thirty Tuesday morning and at eleven, heads over to the University of Belize to send a similar message to the leaders of that institution. According to Menzies, insider information is that UB now features a gender department, and that’s the reason for taking the protest. So what exactly will be taught in the gender department? Well, Menzies wasn’t too sure, but he told News Five that any program which accepts and uses the gender policy is flawed from the onset.

Patrick Menzies, Belize Can

“The reason why it’s going tomorrow is because UB was scheduled – they are now saying they are not doing it – they were scheduled to have their gender department cranked up. They’ve got people in house already working on it. They are backpedalling but we don’t care if they backpedal. We’ve got insiders giving us the information. If they now will back off thank God. We are happy with that. But we will still demonstrate so that our Belizeans can know and the students of Belize can know that they do not have to take gender classes. They do not have to submit themselves to things that violate their Constitution. That is why we’re doing it. Because school started today, we are doing it tomorrow.”

Reporter

“Mr. Menzies, it terms of the gender classes and gender department…what exactly would UB be teaching in that department?”

Patrick Menzies

“My friend, I don’t know exactly what they’re teaching but let me share this with you. The fact that they’ve already passed out the gender policy to staff members, and that they’ve been telling them that they need to get acquainted with it…already tells me that there is a problem. Why? Well to start with if the gender policy has serious issues violating the Constitution…how will you try and have the staff be sensitized to something that is not yet accepted by the country. If it’s already accepted by the nation then it should be implemented at the university…I agree. But it is not accepted by the nation. The PM has been very nice and polite saying he would look at the changes being submitted. He never said he would accept them. He said he would look at them. So as far as we are concerned, we were not born yesterday…maybe some people are playing the game.”

Belize Can is also asking for a declaration that gender refers to male and female only. UB has not yet indicated what topics would be taught in the course.