Petrelis Files

Why Didn't Gays Protest
UN's General Assembly?

The deadly problems faced by gays in South Africa, Iraq, Jamaica, the United States and many other countries should be addressed by the United Nations, and the world body has only recently made favorable and relatively small moves toward including violations of our human rights on the agenda.

We've also seen the Obama administration reverse a Bush administration decision and come out to support a UN declaration calling for decriminalizing homosexuality, while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has offered strong remarks endorsing protecting the lives and rights of gays around the world.

But we must always be visible in pushing our issues and never allow the politicians, at home or on the world stage, to take our lives and issues for granted. We must continually put our concerns before the policymakers and media, and demand action.

I was reminded of this earlier in the week when Rob Anderson, a gay journalist who has covered global gay issues for the New Republic in the past, posted this message to the GaysWithoutBorders group on Yahoo:

I am a journalist in New York City hoping to cover the protests of Ahmadinejad's visit to the U.N. this week. I know most of the protests will be aimed at the elections--rightly so. But I'm wondering if there is anything being planned by/for/about queer issues this time around. I'd appreciate any help, leads, sources, ideas.

Unfortunately, no one replied to Rob and I've been unable to locate any info about any gay-specific actions of any sort taking place during the opening this week of the United Nation's General Assembly.

I contacted Paul Schindler, editor of Gay City News in Manhattan, and asked him why this was the case. His reply:

Not sure what to tell you about the UN except that the community might indeed be on overload. City elections here in NYC, trying to push marriage in Albany, AIDS demos at the G20 in Pittsburgh, saving marriage in Maine, and planning a march on Washington.

The organizers of DC have insisted that energy is not finite and that all this can be done at once, but I have not found that a persuasive argument.

One other point. Gaddafi here in New York and I think generally has been the story. The various efforts to prevent him from pitching a tent (in Englewood, NJ, in Central Park, in Beford, NY on land owned by Trump) has gotten a lot more attention that Ahmidinejad's appearance.

What I will tell you is that I have not heard of any gay-specific protests or other activity here in NYC, and given that it is mid day Wednesday I think it's safe to say it will not be happening, unless I am just totally out of the loop.

Probably the biggest factor is that AIDS activists have decamped for Pittsburgh, and that crowd generally has some of the most motivated folks for grassroots action. Cleve Jones is in town for a Center forum this evening, so there has been mobilizing on that.

Paul makes many good points, and, we must also bear in mind that even if gays were to attempt a street action anywhere near the UN this week, it would have been damn difficult, to put it mildly, to get the permits for it or figure out a way to get activists to the demonstration, given all the security and rerouting of life on NYC's East Side.

Still, if there had been time or energy among NYC activists to focus some attention on foreign gay people and issues, it would have been great to see speak outs in Union Square or at the Stonewall Inn. Maybe a town hall session at the gay community center, or lectures at the many universities with gay student leagues.

Perhaps our professional advocacy organizations with domestic and global agendas, including Human Rights Watch, IGLHRC, Amnesty International, the Human Rights Campaign and NGLTF, could have pulled together a joint news conference and made a loud call for change from the UN, and increased concrete steps by the Obama administration.

You might ask, why do any or all of that organizing, when the competition for media and political attention is so fierce? The answers are because it is such an important week on the international agenda and efforts must be made at such times to show that we are an engaged community, because our actions could break through the competition and garner widespread or respectable attention, and simply to exercise our global gay networks.

The UN and the gay community - two parties that need to be more engaged with each other.

[Update]

A friend writes in with something very notable I want to call attention to:

You might note that it was a REPUBLICAN congresswoman, Ileane Ros-Lehtinen, who put out a press release protesting the statement of the former Libyan Foreign Minister, and present UNGA President, on homosexuality.

Hat tip to JK, and be sure to click here to read the congresswoman's full statement to the Miami Herald on this. And here is an excerpt from the statement:

“The anti-gay bigotry spewed by this Qaddafi shill demonstrates once again that the UN has been hijacked by advocates of hate and intolerance.

“Likewise, the leadership of the UN Development Program is held by the Iranian regime, which denies the presence of gays in Iran even as it murders them and other innocent citizens. [...]"