BY ANNE GEARAN
AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department said Friday that concern over potential support for pedophilia was behind the U.S. vote to exclude two gay rights groups from membership on a United Nations panel.
“We did not vote against the group because they are a gay rights group,” State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez. “The United States remains a champion of human rights for all in the world and committed to the right of individual freedom of expression.”
The department was responding to criticism that the U.S. had sided with Iran, Zimbabwe and other repressive regimes in excluding two gay rights groups the U.N. Economic and Social Council.
“I had hopes for better from you,” Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week.
Frank told Rice he was “deeply troubled to learn that the U.S. government, presumably at your direction, sided with some of the most undemocratic, anti-human rights regimes in the world” in voting against the two gay groups.
“To refuse them status, what else is it except an act of bigotry?” Frank said. Frank is openly homosexual.
Human Rights Watch, the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign and other gay rights organizations also complained in a letter to Rice shortly after the Jan. 23 membership vote for the Economic and Social Council.
The U.N. panel is a think tank of nongovernmental agencies from around the world. The Brussels, Belgium-based International Lesbian and Gay Association sought inclusion in May, along with the Danish National Association of Gays and Lesbians. Nearly 3,000 organizations hold “consultative status” with the body, meaning they can participate from within in discussions among United Nations member states.
According to Human Rights Watch, states that joined the United States in voting against the applications were Cameroon, China, Cuba, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Senegal, Sudan and Zimbabwe. Chile, France, Germany, Peru and Romania voted for inclusion. Colombia, India and Turkey abstained and the Ivory Coast was absent.
Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Zimbabwe are among nations regularly criticized by the State Department for repression and human rights abuses. The United States has also criticized China’s human rights record, and made milder recent statements about the continuation of military rule in Pakistan and increasingly undemocratic moves by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In 2002 the United States voted to support the International Lesbian and Gay Association’s request to have its status reviewed. U.S. officials have not explained the change.
“We hope you will provide the reasons for this reversal,” Human Rights Watch and about 40 other groups wrote to Rice. The letter asked whether it is now U.S. policy to oppose panel membership for any gay rights group.
Vasquez said Friday: “The United States continues to implement a law requiring certification by the United Nations to prohibit funding of NGOs that condone pedophilia. The United States as a policy matter remains concerned about support for pedophilia, and we believe that ILGA must establish a verifiable process” to ensure that neither it nor its member organizations promote or condone pedophilia.
U.S. officials thought there was enough ambiguity about the situation that they were uncomfortable voting for the groups.
The State Department documents abuses based on sexual orientation in annual country-by-country reports on human rights practices.
A report on Iran two years ago noted that Iranian law punishes homosexual conduct between men with the death penalty. Human Rights Watch said it has documented four cases of arrests, flogging or execution of gay men in Iran since 2003.
“We find it incomprehensible that the U.S. government would recognize these human rights abuses while denying the people subject to them the right to make their case, alongside other respected human rights organizations, before the U.N.,” the Jan. 25 Human Rights Watch letter said.
The groups noted that three other international gay rights organizations have pending applications before the Economic and Social Council.

So I guess America doesn't believe in Civil rights anymore. Welcome to the future

The administration doesn't believe in human rights...those are just words they espouse to the ignorant few who lap it up, and then proudly proclaim how glorious their leader is. This is an narrow minded, infantile and paranoid administration that thinks nothing of torturing people who stand in their way or who obstruct their ideologic plans, let alone consider gay rights. And what does Pedophilia have to do with homosexuality anyway?

It's sad that on gay rights issues, this administration has more in common with countries like Iran and Zimbabwe than with France and Germany. More kowtowing to the religious right.

Yes, it is, and I know that this probably seems like just another nail in the coffin to you DGG, but if it's any consolation a good majority of people in the world do not think this way. I know I don't. As far as I can tell bushco has no redeeming qualities and they are a disgrace to this nation for many reasons

RSVP to George W. Bush

by Elisa Salasin

02.03.2006


Dear President Bush,

On Saturday, February 4th, 2006, thousands will gather outside of the White House, coming to tell you that the world cannot wait, that we do not accept either your assessment of the state of the union, or your plans for controlling our destiny through your conception of illegitimate "leadership."


I am writing to let you know that I will regretfully be unable to attend this White House event.

I send my regrets as a mother of two young children, children who, while materially comfortable, must grow up in a world infinitely more dangerous, more fractured, more on the edge due to your actions.

I send my regrets on behalf of all mothers who stand against the lies and corruption that fuel our countries so-called spreadng of democracy, our opening of hearts and minds -- the mothers of the more than 2,000 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis that have died for your quest, the mothers who, when confronted by an American convoy in Iraq, hold their baby up to prevent attacks from the scared and stressed US soldiers waving weapons. That is the safety you have brought -- a deep-seated fear that lives on, that kills, if not directly then in spirit.

I send my regrets also on behalf of mothers of the 16,000 Iraqis imprisoned, many without charges, of those imprisoned in Guantanamo, and at each of the secret US-run and sponsored facilities around the world, those held without recourse to justice, those tortured in both body and mind.

I send my regrets as a citizen of your country, but more importantly as a member of the global community that is rising up to speak against your administration's policies, to stand against empire. As I read recently, "Every bomb released over Iraq explodes from Mobile to New Orleans," and as members of the world community we cannot fail to acknowledge these connections. My daughter asked me today when it will be that all the people in world will start to love each other. Perhaps this is the naive vision of a young child, or perhaps it is a question that we all need to take seriously as we do everything in our collective power to drive out your regime that does nothing but breed and perpetrate hatred, bigotry, and intolerance.

So, please understand that my absence on February 4th in no way speaks to an endorsement of you or your policies. My body will be working and caring for my children in California, tending to the day to day obligations that I cannot at this moment put aside. However, my spirit will be beating down your doors, infiltrating the White House grounds, flowing through the bodies and mouths of all who are able to come to Washington to let you know that we, the world, will not wait any longer.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elisa-salasi...sh_b_15077.html

Sincerely,
Elisa Salasin

Perhaps, only Condi can't tell the difference. after all she has never had, or got interested in have a partner to be able to istinguish the difference.

By Jove, where was she when all those church-going pedaphiles were kidnaping and killing children. Maybe, she didn't know they were supposed to be nice family men inside their churches. As smart as she is being reported - a book worm, no doubt -, but she really is clueless when it comes to real-life realities.