How the Media Twists the Truth

UN delegates walked out of an historic UN Human Rights Council debate on gay rights.  While it is true that many of the delegates who left the event were from Muslim countries, it was irresponsible of Radio Free Europe to state in their headline that they were all Arabs.  In fact, every headline about this event seemed to imply that representatives from all Muslim nations walked out of this UN Human Rights Council meeting.

Pakistani Saeed Sawar (not an Arab) spoke on behalf of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), urging that the council not take up the subject of gay rights again...but people from all 57 nations represented in OIC did not walk out of the meeting.  The UN Human Rights Council itself has 47 members, not all from Muslim nations.  Here is the complete list of countries currently represented in the UN Human Rights Council:

African States (13):
Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Djibouti, Libya, Mauritania, Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda

Asian States (13):
Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Thailand

Eastern European States (6):
Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation

Latin American & Caribbean States (8):
Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay

Western European & Other States (7):
Austria, Belgium, Italy, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, United States

At this time there is no official list of nations who walked out of this meeting, but those who were noted included:
-- Mauritania
-- Nigeria

The Russian Federation was also cited for its distaste for addressing LGBT civil rights at this meeting.
At the same time, homosexuality in Russia was decriminalized in 1993.  Seventy six nations out of the 192 represented in the United Nations--nearly 40 per cent--have laws that criminalize homosexuality.

And to clear up any confusion...homosexuality and/or lesbianism is legal in 31 out of 54 African nations (nearly 60%).  

In truth, even in nations where homosexuality and/or lesbianism has been decriminalized, governments often look the other way while their LGBT populations are abused.  Before the United Nations points fingers at any of its member states, all of those so-called "enlightened" states--the United States included--should review their own treatment of LGBT individuals on their own soil, and censure any political candidates or acting government officials who demonize their own native LGBT populations, denying them equal citizenship no matter how well they served in the military, how many generations of ancestors lived on that soil, and no matter whose human rights they had upheld.

Before anyone says that "we have to accept cultural and religious differences" when it comes to discrimination against others, here is United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay's powerful essay "Human rights top all other rights."  Pillay, a victim of discrimination herself as a Tamil in South Africa, comes from a culture where gays and lesbians are not normally accepted.  She also notes that the South Korean UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon did not grow up talking about LGBT issues, and neither have many people in the UN...but that they are learning.

The First Official LGBT Report from the United Nations

The United Nations published its first report about discriminatory laws, practices, and acts of violence around the world directed against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.  While the report is only a summary of events, statistics, and proposed practices to reduce violence against LGBT and intersex people, it is a historic document. 

Only since 2006 has the UN identified LGBT and intersex people in studies, programs, and reports about HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, sex education, the safety of children, women's health, and hate crimes.  While reasons for the lack of LGBT and intersex recognition by the UN for so long is unknown, the current UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his concern in a speech on Human Rights Day 2010, when he stated

"As men and women of conscience, we reject discrimination in general, and in particular discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity...Where there is a tension between cultural attitudes and universal human rights, rights must carry the day.  Together, we seek the repeal of laws that criminalize homosexuality, that permit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, that encourage violence."

People of the United States also struggle with a tension between cultural attitudes and universal human rights.  Recently Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech about LGBT rights being human rights.  At the same time, in the United States, there is still no federal protection specifically for LGBT people, and an LGBT asylum seeker abused or persecuted in his or her home country may suffer worse discrimination, abuse, and shame on American soil depending on where he or she settles.  Every state of our union has different laws in regard to the civil rights of LGBT people. 

To Clinton's credit, not once in her speech did she claim that the United States was a shining beacon of love and rainbows that would teach by example.  Every state in the union has its Matthew Shepards and Brandon Teenas, names upon names, souls upon souls, of people who could have made a difference in this world.