US Legislators Press Rice on UN Vote Against Gays

[cal04]

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.

more
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-rights-gays-un.html

[rodeodance]

1. This is horrile message to say about rights to the WORLD!

[HuffleClaw]

2. well, bush simply doesn't want anyone to ever say that he

supports GAYS, in any way or form. but this action DOES allow us to know say, and loudly, 'BUSH SUPPORTS IRAN' !