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US legislators press Rice on UN vote against gays
By Irwin Arieff Tue Feb 7, 9:37 PM ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Bush administration's support for Iran's
proposal to bar two gay rights groups from a voice at the United Nations
sparked a demand from U.S. legislators on Tuesday that Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice repudiate the action.
The January 23 vote denying "consultative status" at the world body to the
Belgium-based International Gay and Lesbian Association and the Danish
National Association for Gays and Lesbians was a "drastic reversal" of
Washington's previous stand on the issue, the U.S. House of
Representatives members wrote.
Nearly 3,000 nongovernmental organizations have such status, which enables
them to distribute documents and speak at meetings of some U.N. bodies and
conferences.
In voting for Iran's proposal, "the United States joined some of the
world's most oppressive regimes, among them China, Cuba, Sudan and
Zimbabwe" and demonstrated "a reprehensible inconsistency" in the
protection of rights based on sexual orientation, the lawmakers said.
Among the 44 Democrats and one independent signing the letter were
Democrats Eliot Engel of New York, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, Tom Lantos of
California, Rahm Emanuel of Illinois and Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.
They called on Rice to publicly repudiate the action and support pending
applications by three other gay rights groups.
The vote occurred in the U.N. Economic and Social Council's Committee on
Nongovernmental Organizations.
U.S. officials said the United States had opposed the Belgian group in
January due to its previous ties to the North American Man/Boy Love
Association, which condones pedophilia.
But the United States had voted in 2002 to approve U.N. ties to the group.
At that time, a U.S. diplomat told the committee Washington was convinced
it no longer condoned pedophilia and praised it for its life-saving
activities in the struggle against AIDS.
Despite U.S. support, the group failed to win enough votes to win
consultative status in 2002, and the January 2006 vote had been its first
chance since then to try again.
On January 23, the United States first abstained on a motion to deny a
hearing to the two groups. That motion carried.
Washington then voted in favor of Iran's proposal to deny their
applications, which carried 10-5 with three abstentions.
Following the vote, German envoy Martin Thuemmel said the committee
decision "will haunt us for a long time" because it sent a message that it
was acceptable to discriminate on the basis of an individual's sexual
orientation.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060208/pl_nm/rights_gays_un_dc;_ylt=Amry9yTRVETRey_z.JzzoOEa.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--
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