US Balks at Backing Condemnation of Anti-Gay Laws
By David Curry
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Alone among major Western nations, the United States has refused to sign a declaration presented Thursday at the United Nations calling for worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality.
In all, 66 of the U.N.'s 192 member countries signed the nonbinding declaration — which backers called a historic step to push the General Assembly to deal more forthrightly with any-gay discrimination. More than 70 U.N. members outlaw homosexuality, and in several of them homosexual acts can be punished by execution.
Co-sponsored by France and the Netherlands, the declaration was signed by all 27 European Union members, as well as Japan, Australia, Mexico and three dozen other countries. There was broad opposition from Muslim nations, and the United States refused to sign, indicating that some parts of the declaration raised legal questions that needed further review.
"It's disappointing," said Rama Yade, France's human rights minister, of the U.S. position — which she described as in contradiction with America's long tradition as a defender of human rights.
According to some of the declaration's backers, U.S. officials expressed concern in private talks that some parts of the declaration might be problematic in committing the federal government on matters that fall under state jurisdiction. In numerous states, landlords and private employers are allowed to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation; on the federal level, gays are not allowed to serve openly in the military.
Carolyn Vadino, a spokeswoman for the U.S. mission to the U.N., stressed that the United States — despite its unwillingness to sign — condemned any human rights violations related to sexual orientation.
Gay rights activists nonetheless were angered by the U.S. position.
"It's an appalling stance — to not join with other countries that are standing up and calling for decriminalization of homosexuality," said Paula Ettelbrick, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.
She expressed hope that the U.S. position might change after President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January.
More than 50 countries opposed to the declaration, including members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, issued a joint statement Thursday criticizing the initiative as an unwarranted attempt to give special prominence to gays and lesbians. The statement suggested that protecting sexual orientation could lead to "the social normalization and possibly the legalization of deplorable acts" such as pedophilia and incest.
The declaration also has been opposed by the Vatican, a stance which prompted a protest in Rome earlier this month.
A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the Roman Catholic Church opposed the death penalty and other harsh repression of gays and lesbians, but he expressed concern that the declaration would be used as pressure against those who believe marriage rights should not be extended to gays.
A new Vatican statement, issued Thursday, endorsed the call to end criminal penalties against gays, but said that overall the declaration "gives rise to uncertainty in the law and challenges existing human norms."
The European nations backing the declaration waged their campaign in conjunction with the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Dutch foreign affairs minister, Maxime Verhagen, said countries which endorsed that 1948 document had no right to carve out exceptions based on religion or culture that allowed discrimination against gays.
"Human rights apply to all people in all places at all times," he said. "I will not accept any excuse."
He acknowledged that the new declaration had only symbolic import, but said it marked the first time such a large number of nations had raised the cause of gay rights in the context of General Assembly proceedings.
"This statement aims to make debate commonplace," he said. "It is not meant to be a source of division, but to eliminate the taboo that surrounds the issue."
Although the declaration's backers were pleased that nations on six continents had signed it, there were only two from Asia and four from Africa.
You know, I just don't get this. I thought America was supposed to be the 'Land of the Free' and it decides it prefers homosexuality be illegal wherever it can in the world. This isn't even about gay marriage, for God's sake! It's about homosexuality in general. While I deplore the United Nations in every aspect, there is nothing wrong with the U.S. signing this declaration—it was the only modern, industrialized nation to refuse! The international community is baffled and so am I. Are Bush's diplomats just trying to be assholes? I guess I shouldn't be so surprised seeing as how the corrupt Religious Right is running our country, but really, I thought the Bush Administration was better than this. They don't even have an excuse. The Muslims fear it will slide into legalizing pedophilic acts and incest and such. Yeah, whatever. Stubborn dumbasses. Simply being a homosexual doesn't harm anybody, but there are people in 3rd world Muslim countries being executed just for that. I guess Bush's boys prefer people getting killed for being gay rather than simply signing a simple document saying they don't like it. Oh, but that would be a lie, wouldn't it? No word from them. They just couldn't do it, could they? The hard-line social conservative religious nuts just couldn't do it. The Europeans are currently mocking our 'Land of the Free' claim and they have every right to. We are supposed to serve as an example!
Mr. President, Thank you! Thank you for mismanaging what could've been a quick war! Thank you for expanding the federal government more than any president since FDR! Thank you for brown-nosing and butting into every state, local, and foreign issue! Thank you for blatantly disregarding the tenet of fiscal conservatism and sinking us into unimaginable debt and a deficit that my KIDS are gonna be paying off! Thank you for your administration's faulty WMD intel! Thank you paroling violent criminals, militarizing our policemen, and wasting so much money for your daddy's useless drug war! Thank you allowing Big Brother to peak into our homes, monitor our conversations, and interfere with our private lives, saying "it's for the good of the nation"! Thank you and your administration for your reactionary wishes for Constitutional amendments banning whatever you didn't like! Thank you for your wasteful spending, welfare, and earmarks! Thank you for burning, shooting, raping, impaling, disemboweling, and shitting on everything the Republican Party stood for! Thank you for fucking up the GOP so bad that the American people turn to someone like Barack Obama!
Mr. President, thank you, good-bye, and good riddance.
