US Legislators Press
Rice on UN Vote
Against Gays
By REUTERS, from the
NYTimes on the Web, February 7, 2006
UNITED NATIONS -- 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.
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