Examining Intersections of LGBTQ+ and Women’s Socio-economic Issues: A Belizean Case Study

Abstract

Labour-class single mothers are human rights defenders. They fight for their own rights and use their limited access to fight for the equal treatment of other sexual minorities. Currently, there is little understanding of this demographic navigating social and systemic barriers in pursuit of justice and gender equality. Even less is known of what they experience when they challenge those same systems on behalf of LGBTQ+ people. Overall, Women and Belize’s LGBTQ+ community face similar economic, social, and sexual inequalities. Many of those socio-economic inequalities are intersectional when we consider the impact of sexual orientation, gender, class, educational status, and ethnicity within Belize’s context.  This case study chronologically explores one woman’s experiences as she battles class stereotypes and gendered economic disparities while simultaneously fighting for the human rights, safety, and basic needs of her maturing bisexual son.  Starting at the time her son was eight years old, and is assaulted by an adult, this case study traces the mother’s evolution as her son’s human rights defender. Her challenges as his advocate traverse her own experiences with domestic violence and widowhood.  The case study maps difficulties marked by the sudden death of her husband and tensions that emerge from her trying to resolve social security benefits, her son’s medical issues, her rights to matrimonial property, and homophobic violence towards her son. The state appear complicit and indifferent due to the lack of adequate investments to address Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESC) issues impacting Labour- class single mothers and LGBTQ+ youth.