U.S. Blasts Gender Ideology at UN Conference

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UNITED NATIONS, September 26 (C-Fam) Thirty years after First Lady Hillary Clinton famously declared “women’s rights are human rights and human rights are women’s rights,” at a landmark UN women’s conference, the U.S. criticized the UN for becoming confused about what a woman is.

Speaking on behalf of the U.S. at an event commemorating the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, U.S. representative Bethany Kozma posed the question: “Should we celebrate success when UN Women, the premiere UN organization focusing on women, after all these years, still cannot simply define a woman?”

The event was held as part of the high-level opening of the UN General Assembly, and the speakers included presidents, prime ministers, queens, first ladies, and representative of all levels of national governments.

Kozma’s remarks highlighted the Trump administration’s pro-family priorities and affirmed that biological sex is not only a scientific fact, but an aspect of God’s creation.  She pointed out that parents, and not the state, have the ultimate right to determine what their children should be taught, and that UN-style comprehensive sexuality education “is a violation of parental rights.”

Several other governments’ representatives made remarks in support of the centrality of the family in securing women’s rights.  Hungary noted that the definition of the family is “under attack from extreme gender ideology” and highlighted some of Hungary’s policies to ensure that families do not have to choose between having children and avoiding poverty.  Burundi emphasized the original meaning of what was agreed in 1995 in Beijing and the value of motherhood to society.

In contrast, several governments made statements warning of the “backlash” to feminist advances and referred to women “in all their diversity,” which has become a common UN euphemism to include men who claim to be women.  Sweden insisted that “defending sexual and reproductive health and rights is vital,” and explicitly mentioned “safe and legal abortion.”  Spain announced itself as “proudly feminist” and mentioned its recently expanded right to abortion.  Iceland, New Zealand, and Brazil emphasized LGBTQ+ rights in their statements.

At the beginning of the all-day event, representatives of some of the UN’s agencies and women-focused human rights bodies also delivered statements.  A representative of the Working Group on Women and Girls denounced “challenges to the concept of gender” and “retrogressive narratives,” drawing attention to a recent statement from multiple human rights mandate-holders insisting on the importance of gender as opposed to sex as a binary biological reality.

She was followed by Reem Alsalem, the UN rapporteur on violence against women and girls, who had been the target of the pro-gender statement due to her reports defending the reality and importance of biological sex.  Alsalem called on UN member states to recommit to the agenda agreed to at Beijing with “honesty and courage” by “reaffirming women’s inherent dignity and humanity” including “the material reality of being female.”

She spoke out against the “rampant commodification and objectification of women and girls” through prostitution, pornography, and the sale of their reproductive functions, as through surrogacy.

Noting that the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action referenced “sex” 176 times, Alsalem said that its architects “would be in disbelief to learn that stating this truth is branded by some as hateful, outdated, or regressive.”

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