UN Chief Dismisses Countries Critical of LGBT Stamp

By Stefano Gennarini, J.D. | February 25, 2016

NEW YORK, February 26 (C-Fam) UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon seemingly ignored and eventually dismissed concerns about the UN promoting homosexuality through explicit UN postage stamps, signaling that the stamps will not be withdrawn as some member states have demanded.

Earlier this month countries stood by helplessly as UN bureaucrats presented a series of UN postage stamps that depict homosexuality, transsexualism, and homosexual “parenting” at UN headquarters to great fanfare and expense in an eccentric ceremony featuring an all male 33 member strong gay chorus singing love songs and show tunes against a backdrop of naked dancers and Greek gods.

Delegations of at least 86 countries tried to prevent the release of the stamps on the eve of the event. Letters objecting to the stamps were sent to Ban Ki-moon on February 3 and remained unanswered for two weeks.

Predictably the Secretary General, a vociferous proponent of social acceptance of homosexuality, denied any accusations of wrongdoing and overreach, and called the roll-out of the stamps “in line with the mandate” of the UN Postal Administration.

The Secretary General did not personally respond to the objections, using a subordinate instead, a decision that may be interpreted as condescension and disrespect to the ambassadors who sent the letters.

Yukio Takasu, Under-Secretary-General for Management, sent a letter to the ambassadors of Belarus, Egypt, and Qatar, representing 24 member states of the Group of Friends of the Family. The ambassadors visited Takasu alongside representatives of the Organizations of Islamic Cooperation and the African Group on February 9 after a week went by without an answer from Ban Ki-moon.

Takasu justifies the stamps as commemorations of the Free and Equal campaign of the UN bureaucracy, which promotes sodomy and sex change operations as human rights, and is described in the letter as a “public education campaign to combat homophobia and transphobia.”

The mandate of the UN Postal Administration is to produce stamps that promote the work of the UN organization and therefore, according to the letter, the event was in “full compliance” with UN regulations and administrative instructions.

There is a precedent for a UN stamp design already approved by the UN agency for science and education being rejected within 48 hours following political objections from UN member states.

But the letter dismisses the possibility of withdrawing the LGBT stamps, even though it concedes the stamps may be inappropriate.

“While it would not be possible to withdraw the stamps, in view of the seriousness of your concerns, we are taking this opportunity to review the internal procedures governing the issue of United Nations stamps,” the letter concludes.

The confrontation over the social acceptance of homosexuality and the establishment of special protections for individuals who identify as LGBT is not limited to UN headquarters.

In recent years a growing number of countries has prohibited “homosexual propaganda” that equates homosexual relations to marriage as well as the very possibility of marriage between persons of the same sex, including in Europe. In the past two weeks in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore there have been strong calls for the UN and others to cease promoting homosexuality.

Despite these tensions expanding globally, the UN Secretary General has vowed to continue to promote the social acceptance of homosexuality. Seventy-six countries prohibit sodomy explicitly in their laws, and no UN treaty includes LGBT rights or protects homosexual conduct explicitly or implicitly.

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