U.N. Gay Rights Statement: Why The U.S. Hold Up?

50 countries have already signed the new United Nations gay rights statement, which seems like a no-brainer for every Western nation to participate in. So, why has the good old U.S. of A. stalled on adding its signature to this important document?

The Council for Global Equality says that the statement will "call on all governments around the world to ensure that sexual orientation and gender identity are not subjected to criminal penalty, and that individuals are not executed, arrested or otherwise detained because of their sexual orientation or gender identity”.

The U.S. has signed similar statements recently, including a piece from the Organization of American States, which protects the rights of gays and the transgendered -- and also a similar one at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Despite the perceived cold shoulder from the U.S., it appears that some House members are not completely asleep at the wheel. U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (who is openly gay) has joined with Rep. Howard Berman (chairman the House International Affairs Committee) and Rep. Gary Ackerman (of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee) to nudge the State Department to quit stalling and sign the proposed U.N. statement.

Every country in the European Union has approved the statement, and the document is scheduled to go before the U.N. General Assembly by December 20th.

I'm sure you won't be shocked to know that the Vatican has completely denounced the protection statement, and has urged countries not to sign it.

Photo: Getty Images

Comments

[Gay Ball Sack]

go figure, the USA is stalling because it's a Christian nation. a fuckfest of hypocrisy and hatred! If and when the U.S. is reported to have not signed this, I can tell you it will be because of Christianity saying "We do not support this, homosexuals are sinners!"

So let me get this more straight than gay. As human beings, we have to fuck women in order to live? Wait a second now! What happened to having a choice and not being judged by our choices? Does this mean that I can walk around in public and scream at anyone and discriminate because I'm being discriminated against?

I want my rights as a human to BE a human, not have rights to be gay. It's like earning a gold star in special education and getting rewarded with extra recess time for learning how to add 2 plus 2.

How much more disgrace and belittlement are we entitled to as HUMAN BEINGS and NOT FAGGOTS?! Let me tell you, we should abolish the fuck out of everything and call it a universal human law that we are free to be who we want to be, and still keep the laws for criminal justice in place, for rape crimes or pedophilia so to speak, as well as murder and assault.

Make a true utopia happen. Do this, and we'll be golden. Oh, but we have to remove church from state permanently. Religion has no place in Politics, and it never will, because it's what is causing the global corruption, starting mainly FROM the USA.

If you do not wholeheartedly agree with me on this comment, you obviously are playing into the games or are full of hatred towards your own kind yourself. Where the hell would you get off at believing I'm wrong? Oh, the bath house! I forgot!

You want the right future in place with rights for every single fucking person? Start with me, and it'll end with all of us being more free than you really are.

[Will]

Well said Gay Ball Sack.

[shyandcurious0008]

Is there a list of which countries HAVE signed this statement? I would be interested to see which countries are supporting gay rights in the UN.

[eche80]

You are either very bitter, very crazy or truly smoking something. Go back. Refrain your language. Clean up your obscenities and restart. NOONE is going to listen to a person borderline demented and one whose speech is abominable for straight or gay. Shape up or ship out buddy. Tootooloo et au revoir...it was not pleasant listening to your ranting and whining. Cheers mate!

[cocomin]

shy - it's in the article:

"Every country in the European Union has approved the statement, and the document is scheduled to go before the U.N. General Assembly by December 20th."

You can also look on the UN website and it'll probably be there. A little research...

Gay ball - I actually agree with you (rare for me to agree with another gay man...). Politics and religion have thrived on labels to the point that they have vacated the human factor. While in college, one of my history professors suggested the reason behind the US's reaction to gay rights stems from the ERA (equal rights act) of earlier times. Politicians realized that if they extended equal rights to gays, that would open a can of worms they didn't want to deal with in terms of extending those same rights to Mormons and their polygamy, risk preempting states' rights, age of consent, and God knows what else the legal beagles would extrapolate. The government continues to kick the can down the road because our reps in Congress don't want their names attached to anything of the sort, much less the consequences that would/could occur. Meanwhile, the Christian Wrong is capitalizing.

[cocomin]

While we're on the subject - take a look at this... I'm sure gay.com's stellar journalists (sarcasm...) are all over it...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20081217/pl_politico/16693

[M]

There has never been a movement for equality from any group that hasn't needed to use violance to get the establishments attention. From the Irish, Jews, People of Color to our attempt at Stonewall. Maybe its time for some more drastic measures?

[Wyatt1969again]

Well - I think this is only a case of George Bush putting his best cloven foot forward.

A lesson first taught by Nancy’s old man.

Trickle-Down Hateonomics

Perhaps this strife is a little premature.

Let’s see what Obama and Hillary do (Yes Hillary – don’t be stupid).

I don’t think it will be easy for them at all.

But I do think if there is a way – at all – then they won’t let us down.

Don’t forget how much the Bush Administration fucked with Kofi Annan.

Kofi was dubious – which usually doesn’t lend any help to the suddenly righteous.

Still – he was not wrong to question the United States.

America should not be able to buy its way into or out of any Policy unless its contribution or withdrawal is altruistic and that’s what this is all really about.

America is the single largest contributor to the UN.

For eight years she stood – bridled with fear and deceit – pointing instead of welcoming.

And for this – we all paid the price.

Change is in fact upon us.

Think of it this way…

America has too long been the marionette whose strings were so taut she could move very little. Now those strings have been cut. They will fall to the way [sic] whereupon we all have a choice to make. To either pull her down or lead her back to freedom.

[g0y4u2]

Just to play the devil's advocate...so to speak: The Vatican has two issues with the proposal. One is equality in sexual orientation, the other is matrimony. This should not be a surprise to anyone. One can not expect a leopard to change its spots. Other wise the Vatican is obviously in favor of the decriminalization of laws against sexual orientation

[Jorge alvarez]

to file in case Jorge alvarez

[Richard Schiller]

I find that human rights are not equal. This means that gays do not give human rights to straights and so I can comprehend why the straights dont give human rights to gays. The conceptof let anyone be free flies right on over the line to doing anyone sexually and doing anything sexually no matter what the physical or psychological damage to the person or child or animal. Language means nothing; the twist of words is worse than an issue of fowl plug your virgin ears philosophy that even business athiest hold on to. Personally I cannot wonder what person wants to give human rights to someone who advocates FUCK FESTS. The truth is I have never seen a STRAIGHT PARADE day with the public nudity going down the street that gay parades come micorscopically close to in the name of freedom. Again it leaves impression the freedom they wish to have is a FUCK FEST and they are getting that with internet wallet milking because so many married men are hooking up discreetly. And of course so many gays do not want these married men to have that sexual freedom to do so. This topic itself is absurd because it implies that gays lose human rights when flaunting gay status. Then don't flaunt it. How many rights do you think women have when as prostitutes they flauntspred legs in exchange for criminal releasals for drugs or extortions or theft. Do not ever say gays don't pull the same criminal games as straights or vagrants or low class people. Few of the people who whine having no human rights are truly the upper business classes. Successful business doesnt tell everyone who they screw, or which fuck fest they were at this week.

[Steven]

I think some of you whiny, self-identified VICTIMS should think of what happens to gay people in IRAN, SAUDI ARABIA, NORTH KOREA....are they dancing in the streets with rainbow flags??

You ASSHOLES are complaining about some useless document being signed?????

Get that stranger's dick out of your ass, and think of what goes on in the world.

[Steven]

I think some of you whiny, self-identified VICTIMS should think of what happens to gay people in IRAN, SAUDI ARABIA, NORTH KOREA....are they dancing in the streets with rainbow flags??

You ASSHOLES are complaining about some useless document being signed?????

Get that stranger's dick out of your ass, and think of what goes on in the world.

[Esteban]

Its easy to complain when you see what you dont have. We chose to ignore what happens in Iran and Korea and look to Netherlands and Spain- where gay marriage is equal to straight marriage.
I admit I wish America would do some things better- allow marriage and sign this document. But at least we must say they allow us to have pride parades and have our gay bars. Perhaps for the presidents it is more "out of sight, out of mind."
Its a big tug of war and Republicans have to please their Christian base while the Democrats have to please everyone else...

[Adam]

It has stalled because Americans, for the most part, are homophobic and closed minded. The backwoods Red States are to blame.

[Stosh2]

Would the author of the article please link to the United Nations Gay Rights Statement referred to, give its full title or produce it in full?

[The Devil of the Contra Code]

Why would anybody, anti-gay, Christian, whatever, would NOT sign this? Its not about special rights or marriage? Its about de-criminalizing homosexuality which is way fucking long overdue anyway. Ridiculous. Besmerching I say!

[thebsnscout]

A statement about embracing violence to achieve rights.
Documents/statements do very little to change people.
treating people with respect and kindness at all times will change hearts and minds. People fear what they do not know, open your heart and mind, violence solves nothing.

[Gay Ball Sack]

ok having read a few of the responses, let me clear up my "language" a bit here just to keep you guys in tune with what we're discussing (for fuck sakes)

first of all... eche80, i am not bitter honestly. i'm stubborn as hell about my viewpoints with american culture as i've lived it for a quarter century, and i think we could do better, but really, do you see any organization, cult, or activist group succeed in changing things the way they are? FUCK NO! you want to know why? because you have to be aggressive (and say fuck a lot) in order to get your point across. that's why my stubbornness is viewed to you as "pre-pubescent" and "childish"

i'll laugh when you accomplish something that gets in the news then.

as for the rest of us who are paying attention now...

it really does trickle down to the fact that it's church AND state being corrupted and we have to suffer because it's a threesome triangle in which one relies on another. we rely on state to help us understand how we're doing. state relies on us to help guide them to where we want to go. religion relies on people to be "converted" and we rely on religion to be so stupid as to dictate to us what we are supposed to be.

so it's a love-hate relationship.

it's high time we change the fucking rules and morph the system together to something that does not dictate to us how we're supposed to live, how we think, and how we feel.

forgive me father for i will sin until the day i die. i was born with a cause and chose not to accept your ridiculous ideals that one man is a direct descendant of someone who does not exist. someone i've asked to see time and time again, and he never comes up to me and says hello and tells me that he's proud of me for being a stubborn asshole who knows what america needs. if you did exist, i'd ask you why "we, the people" really looks more like "we, who will save you from your sinful ways" and tells us we're bad people when we were created in his image.

forgive me father, for i have fucking sinned by being created through evolution with a purpose in life to show people the way without using religion or fear or corruption. if thou shalt not kill, then why art thou being killed with greed, suffering, and arrogance?

i adapt no religion to my life. my life is my religion. if you really wanted the way out of this mess, trust in barack and the next president after him, and when i turn 35, let's put my face all over flags and posters, and let's raise millions of dollars to put my gay white ass in the white house.

and then, watch as the metamorphosis takes place. if i were the president starting january 20th, 2009, what must be done for civility would be done in 2 years, and as far as our global ties go, they would be well understood and the first thing ever in years would take place; giving respect to other countries regardless of it's views currently on the U.S.

i say don't bomb us because our ancestors might've fucked you over. i'm here to show you we should be more peaceful and stop bickering about what we won't have after a few thousand years at best. enjoy the time we have now, because nothing is meant to last.

maybe, that itself will change your fucking mind?

[Wild Man]

There are 192 member nations the UN. This article says [only] 50 nations support the statement.

The Vatican is not a member nation of the UN, just an Observer (non-member permanent observer). In other words, they have no vote on the passage of this or any other UN statement or resolution.

You do the math.

How many of you even know what the wording of the statement is? Sure, the title of "United Nations gay rights statement" sounds all nice and great but what's in the fine print? It's very superficial to just accept the title without looking at what the actual document says.

Typical shallow, superficial gay men to fall for sweet talk and a pretty face without looking deep down and scratching the surface.

How many of you have signed a contract or agreed to something, maybe a gym membership, then when you read the fine print later on you realized it wasn't what you originally thought?

Am I the only independently minded gay man on here?

[Jose Marrero]

Are we missing the ciritical issue here? This is not about civil rights, like gay marriage...this is about Human Rights. How sad that the United States and the Catholic church, both of which I grew up in, are heinously refusing to sign this statement. The title of the statement should be Human Rights rather than Gay rights! People are being imprisoned and executed, not for parading half naked, but for whom they love. In the words of a famous prophet: "My God, why have you foresaken me?"

People, please stop the cursing and the name calling. We MUST effectively stand up to this abomination of justice and human decency and change this somehow! Reinforcing rude and vulgar stereotypes is not likely to change Christian minds.

This refusal cannot be allowed to be swept under the rug...in the name of all that is decent, we need to come up with an efective strategy to overturn this.

[Brady]

I'm going with Gay Ball Sack on this one folks

[Brady]

I'm going with Gay Ball Sack on this one folks

[splerrk]

Well let hope they are focusing on the ECONOMYIn which is much more important to EVERYONE.
Welcome to thegood ole USA.
Everyone here is FREE to Bitch & Discriminate expecially amongst our GAY Society.
We pretty much have the right to live already anyways.
Let the Hetros have fucking marriage. We gays are the ultimate minority in every walk of life.
What else is new.
Just live with it.
It shouldn't be so much of a challenge for us anymore.

[T.R. Sherrill]

Gay Ball Sack:
You fail to realize one very key thing about the society you rage against. In fact, you fail to realize one very key thing about ALL society:

In order for human beings to benefit from the societies they move in, they must, to some extent, abide by personal constraints that society demands. For instance, nobody will ever take somebody seriously who rants and raves using a plethora of grammatically inappropriate expletives.

Also, human societies exist as a result of our own evolution. The only reason why we no longer wander the world aimlessly spending every moment fighting to survive is because we realized that if we worked together and followed a social construct, we could be more efficient and have better chances at surviving.

Therefore, it is pointless to spend time whining about having to abide by social constraints because these constraints exist solely for the benefit of our species. I'm not saying that we should not continue to work towards altering our society to be more inclusive to alternative walks of life. I'm simply saying that it's pointless to move towards this goal by attempting to break down the society as a whole. Work within the system to change it.

[jay]

We truly are the minority. Gay ball sack sounds like a remake of Wyatt who constantly post crap on gay.com.

[Wyatt1969again]

Gay Ball Sack not remake of Wyatt1969again.

But Wyatt proud he included in group like Gay Ball Sack.

Wyatt also like Kathleen and Queer Planet.

Aktooally – Wyatt like moor 2!

Sometimes Wyatt say to self – Self! Why you not consider value of others?

Alas – I am not the messenger – I am the message. This being the case, I must accept that there are those less palliative than I….or uh…Me.

LOL

[jay]

Again wyatts ranting about nothing..... Somebody get this fucker some midol

[Wyatt1969again]

Oh Jay –

I don’t need midol at all!

I prefer my own special brand of Trail Mix!

There’s nothing like being trapped in a K-hole with your head stuck up my ass…

Thinking of Walnuts.

Well – since its Christmas and all…maybe Chestnuts.

p.s.

Long live the Queen!

And the U.N.!

Happy Holidays everyone!

p.s.s.

You only need to use three dots Jay – like this…

[jay]

There you go again with an endless stream of bitching... Lmao I'm sure your n short supply of friends or all of them r crazy like you

[KaninZ]

The US signing a resolution saying it isn't cool for our Arab oil spigots to kill people for being gay?

Not on Bush's watch baby.

Judging from PE Obama's snuggling up to the Evangelical vote via Mt Rick "No gays in MY congregation" Warren, I don't hold out much hope for the next Hetero-In-Chief.

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