US Legislators Press Condi Rice on U.N. Vote Against Gays
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – 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.
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