Homosexual Groups Rejected Again by UN for Official Status

By Bradford Short, J.D.

     (NEW YORK – C-FAM) Meeting in Geneva last week, the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) rejected three homosexual groups that had applied and been rejected earlier for official UN status. This despite intense pressure from an international coalition of homosexual activist groups.

     In late July, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) submitted a petition to ECOSOC asking the body to overturn a decision made earlier in the year by the UN Committee on NGOs (CONGO) that rejected applications for UN consultative status from the Danish National Association for Gays and Lesbians, the Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany and the International Gay and Lesbian Association – Europe.

     The petition was signed by approximately 100 gay advocacy organizations from around the world. The petition campaign, organized by John Fisher of the Canadian gay rights group, ARC, called on ECOSOC “to overturn the refusal of the NGO Committee to grant consultative status to NGOs addressing the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and to reconsider the applications of ILGA, LBL, LSVD and ILGA-Europe on their merits.”

     The government of Iran argued that there had been a great deal of discussion during the CONGO meetings regarding the applications of the groups in New York last May and that it would have been inappropriate “to reverse the decision of that body just by making a simple decision here [in Geneva].”

     Last May, Iran, and a number of other member states of CONGO, argued against granting status to the homosexual organizations. The Iranian representative argued that concerns about pedophilia had led to the rejection of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) application in the past and now NGOs affiliated with ILGA were applying and it remained unclear whether ILGA and affiliated organizations had taken sufficient measures to prevent or fight pedophilia.

     The representative of the Holy See, acting as an observer at the May CONGO meeting stated, “What ILGA and its proponents are asking is not for equal rights but special rights; special rights that allow others a leeway for a discreet suppression of moral distinctions in choices and behavior that are of vital concern to the international community and the international order.”

     The Holy See representative continued, “Gay rights laws and the demand for special rights as well impose one view of sexual morality – sexual relativism – on all peoples and then enforce this code of morality on constituents of other groups holding other beliefs and legislations.” NGOs seek official UN status so that they can attend UN conferences, directly lobby UN delegates and in some cases release papers and studies into the UN system. In recent years, radical homosexual groups have been trying to get homosexuality read into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which some believe would lead to hate crimes laws enforced against critics of homosexuality.

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