Caleb Orozco (born 1973) is an
LGBT activist in
Belize. He was the chief litigant in a case successfully challenging the
anti-sodomy laws of Belize and the co-founder of the only LGBT advocacy group in the country.
Biography
Orozco became politically active when he was 31, after attending a workshop in
Belize City for gay men and for people living with
HIV
The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immu ...
.
Orozco co-founded the
United Belize Advocacy Movement (UNIBAM) in 2006, and later became the president.
UNIBAM is the country's only LGBT
advocacy group
Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups or pressure groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the developm ...
and has been using the legal system to challenge the
anti-sodomy laws in Belize.
UNIBAM is run out of Orzoco's home.
In 2009, Orozco attended an HIV conference in
Jamaica where he met two
law professors
A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Un ...
from the
University of the West Indies
The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in th ...
Rights Advocacy Project.
The two professors identified Belize as an ideal case for challenging bans on same-sex relationships.
In Belize, there was a law that specified a 10-year prison sentence for sodomy.
In 2011, Orozco and UNIBAM
filed a constitutional case against the law, and challenged section 53 of the criminal code in Belize. The
Catholic Church in Belize came out against the filing, which Orozco defended, saying, "The case is personal and it's about reminding the system that my human rights isn't about picking and choosing which you'll support and which you will ignore. My human rights is total. It's not to be mandated by the church because the church does not govern this country. Period." Not long after the filing, the church made a successful pretrial motion to remove UNIBAM saying the group had no
legal standing, leaving Orozco the sole claimant on the case.
Gay people in Belize did not have a legal voice until Orozco filed the case.
After filing the challenge, Orozco said there had been an increase in hatred directed at LGBT people in Belize. In February 2012, he was threatened with anti-gay insults and hit in the face with a bottle which required surgery. He also began to get death threats because of his challenge to the anti-sodomy law. Orozco has also had his car damaged by people threatening him.
Orozco continued to participate in conferences. He was part of a forum called "Realising the Dream of Caribbean LGBT Inclusion", given at
Ryerson University during the 2014 WorldPride Human Rights conference in
Toronto.
In May 2013, arguments were made in court about the case.
On August 10, 2016, the chief justice ruled Section 53 of the criminal code to be unconstitutional. The law was said "to violate Orozco's human dignity, privacy, and (in forcing him to lie or risk prosecution) freedom of expression." Orozco said, "This is the first day of my life in which it is legal for me to be me." UNIBAM and Orozco began discussions with
Patrick Faber, the Deputy Prime Minister about LGBT representation on the Morality Commission in Belize.
In December 2016, he was awarded the
David Kato Vision and Voice award.
See also
*
LGBT rights in Belize
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in Belize face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT citizens, although attitudes have been changing in recent years. Same-sex sexual activity was decriminalized in Belize in 2016, wh ...
References
External links
Caleb Orozco Speaks of Challenges he has Faced in His Fight(2016 video)
Judgment of the Supreme Court, Orozco v AG of Belize
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orozco, Caleb
1973 births
Living people
People from Belize City
Belizean LGBT rights activists
Felipa de Souza Award
Belizean LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people