Petrelis Files

New Republic: IGLHRC "Does Not Really Do Much," Ettelbrick's "Two Cents"

Writer James Kirchick in February posted a spot-on short critique of IGLHRC and its leader on the New Republic's blog, The Plank. The only thing I wish to add is that three days after the U.S. State Department issued the 2006 human rights report, full of gay and HIV citations, IGLHRC has steadfastly maintained a policy of silence about it.

What do you think gays and people with AIDS around the world feel about Ettelbrick and IGLHRC doing nothing to use the State Dept report to advance respect for their human rights?

Thank you, Mr. Kirchick, for speaking much truth, in a few words, about IGLHRC. From The Plank:

SELECTIVE DISCRIMINATION:

[...]Earlier this month, a United Nations consultative committee on NGOs rejected the credentials of the Coalition of Gays and Lesbians of Quebec, as well as a similar group from Sweden. [...]

This move seems to be a positive reversal in American policy, as last year our government backed a plan by Iran to block similar status for the International Lesbian and Gay Association.

Offering her two cents at the time was Paula Ettelbrick, Executive Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, which, in spite of it's highfalutin name, does not really do much. She said, "Unfortunately, denying LGBT groups a voice and a presence within the United Nations -- the world's most important human rights institution -- is fully in keeping with the U.S.'s assault on basic human rights principles worldwide."

It's comforting to know that an organization ostensibly devoted to protecting the rights of gay people around the world would focus its vitriol on the few nations that don't behead, imprison, or torture homosexuals. Last year, in the run-up to World Pride in Jerusalem (the only place in the Middle East where such an event could even be fathomed), Ettelbrick sent a message to her organization's board stating that "we do not feel it is appropriate to participate in a 'world pride' event in the middle of an occupation and in a location were our colleagues from the region could not travel to Israel to participate." [...]

It should be noted that the human rights concerns of IGLHRC have not prevented it from dispatching a delegation to a conference in Cuba, which makes Laramie, Wyoming look like the Castro, no pun intended.