'Bigotry Conquers All,' Gay Rights Groups Say of U.S. Vote at UN
by Abid Aslam
WASHINGTON - The governments of the United States and Iran--part of
President George W. Bush's ''axis of evil'' and his current nuclear bete
noire--demonstrated rare unity of cause this past week when Washington
backed a Tehran initiative to deny UN access to advocates of sexual
minorities' rights.
Indian gay men carry a rainbow flag during a rare march to raise awareness
about the rights of gays and other sexual minorities in the eastern city
of Calcutta on June 26, 2005. The arrest of four people on charges of
homosexuality and running an online gay club in northern India has
triggered criticism by NGOs and the United Nations' AIDS body, UNAIDS.
REUTERS/Jayanta Shaw
Critics of the move denounced it as a show of bigotry.
''This vote is an aggressive assault by the U.S. government on the right
of sexual minorities to be heard,'' said Scott Long, director of the Human
Rights Watch (HRW) program for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
(LGBT) people.
''It is astonishing that the Bush administration would align itself with
Sudan, China, Iran, and Zimbabwe in a coalition of the homophobic,'' Long
said.
Rights advocates said the Bush administration's international posture
matched its increasingly strident and discriminatory bent at home.
Religiously and socially extremist elements of the U.S. population and
among Bush's supporters--to whom many pundits attributed the president's
2004 re-election-- have been increasingly loud and militant over the past
year, according to human rights activists.
Even so, on Friday the Pacific Northwest's Washington joined 16 other
states that had passed ''landmark legislation protecting people against
discrimination because of sexual orientation,'' said Roberta Sklar,
spokesperson for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
This brought to nearly half--48 percent--the proportion of the U.S.
population protected by similar anti-discrimination measures.
Friday's vote in Washington State demonstrated that despite ''a lot of
propaganda and positioning...there is great support for equal
protection,'' Sklar told OneWorld.
The federal government's UN vote to dismiss two international
organizations' applications for speaking rights at the Economic and Social
Council (ECOSOC) brought the U.S. government in line with regimes it
routinely chides as human rights delinquents, HRW said. These include the
leaders of Cameroon, China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia, Senegal, Sudan, and
Zimbabwe.
The move also marked a shift in policy for Washington, which previously
had supported or abstained on such applications, according to HRW.
Officials gave no explanation for the change, it added.
Some 40 groups joined the rights watchdog Wednesday in signing a letter
demanding that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice account for the
turnaround.
''Is it now the policy of the U.S. government to oppose consultative
status for all organizations working to promote the rights of lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender people?'' the letter asks.
''As U.S.-based organizations working in the fields of human rights and
sexual rights, we are dismayed--and we expect better,'' it concludes.
Groups signing the document included Advocates for Youth, Al-Fatiha
Foundation for LGBT Muslims, Amnesty International USA, Catholics for a
Free Choice, Center for Health and Gender Equity, Latino Commission on
AIDS, MADRE, Metropolitan Community Churches, National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force, Open Society Institute, and Women's Environment and
Development Organization.
At issue are applications filed by the Brussels-based International
Lesbian and Gay Association and the Danish gay rights group
Landsforeningen for Bosser og Lesbiske in May 2005.
Both groups had sought consultative status with ECOSOC. Consultative
status is the official means by which non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) around the world can participate in discussions among member states
at the United Nations. Nearly 3,000 groups have this status, according to
HRW.
When ECOSOC's NGO committee met to review the applications this week, Iran
led governments opposed to the two groups' applications in moving to have
them summarily dismissed. This was an almost unprecedented maneuver at the
world body, where organizations normally are allowed to state their cases,
critics of the move said.
U.S. representatives on the NGO committee abstained on a vote to allow
debate on the applications before moving to vote in favor of the Iranian
proposal to jettison the applications. The motion to dismiss passed 10-to-
5 with three abstentions.
Chile, France, Germany, Peru, and Romania voted not to dismiss the
applications. Colombia, India, and Turkey abstained while Cote d'Ivoire,
which is being consumed by civil unrest, was absent.
At least three other applications are pending, from the European Region of
the International Lesbian and Gay Association, the Canada-based Coalition
Gaie et Lesbienne du Quebec, and Germany's Lesben- und Schwulenverband in
Deutschland.
''As long as human rights abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender people occur, it is vital that non-governmental organizations
working on their behalf are given a place and voice at the United
Nations,'' the U.S.-based groups said in their letter to Rice.
That had been the U.S. position, the groups said, adding that this week's
about-face came despite the U.S. State Department's own expressions of
concern regarding oppression against sexual minorities in various
countries but particularly in Iran and Zimbabwe.
The U.S. government's latest 'Country Reports on Human Rights Practices,'
covering 2004 and released last year, highlighted Iran's use of the death
penalty to punish male homosexual behavior and Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe's verbal lashing of homosexuals as ''people without rights'' and
''worse than dogs and pigs.''
Joe Solmonese, president of the group Human Rights Campaign, assailed the
U.S. reversal, saying ''the United States recklessly ignored its own
reporting proving the need for international support for gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender people.''
Added Matt Foreman, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's executive
director: ''It is deeply disturbing that the self-proclaimed leader of the
free world will ally with bigots at the drop of a hat to advance the right
wing's anti-gay agenda.''
Copyright © 2006 OneWorld.net
Published on Monday, January 30, 2006 by OneWorld.net
###
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0130-07.htm
---
"As I stand here right now, I can tell the American people the program's
legal, it's designed to protect civil liberties, and it's necessary."
-- George W. Bush on his felonious domestic espionage treason against us.
The Bush twins: Born with a silver coke spoon up their noses: Traditional
Christian Family Values at its finest
.
|
