From: Date: Thu, 15 Sep 94 15:11:22 EDT I urge you to contact your members of Congress about this issue. Tell them that you oppose the US asking the UN to revoke the International Lesbian & Gay Association's newly won Consultative Organization status at the UN. You can reach them (and ask who they are if you do not know) at the US Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121. You can also call them at (800) 768-2221 which is a number set up by right-wingers to allow people to contact their representatives free of charge. ;-) Detailed messages follow. Buzz Harris NGLTF Fight the Right Project --------------------- Forwarded message: Subj: URGENT!! US asks UN AGAIN to revoke ILGA status. Date: 94-09-15 14:58:51 EDT From: BXH NGLTF The US has asked the United Nations Economic and Social Council to revoke the International Lesbian & Gay Association's hard-won consultative organization status at the UN. ECOSOC will meet Friday Sept. 16 at 3pm EST to take up the issue. Urgent action is needed. Detailed messages follow... Buzz Harris NGLTF Fight the Right ------------------------------------------------------------ MESSAGE #1 ------------ Date: 15 Sep 1994 08:53:56 -0400 (EDT) From: DMack@aol.com The U.S. has asked for a meeting of the Economic and Social nil of the Unitd Nations (tentatively scheduled for Friday, September 16 at 3:00) to suspend the consultative status of International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA} with the ECOSOC with an invitation to ILGA to apply to reinstate its status when it can make convincing assurance to the Council that neither its members or subsidiaries or ILGA, itself, promotes, condones or seeks the legalization of pedophilia. ILGA is the only lesbian and gay organization with consultative status at the ECOSOC. There are about 1000 international organizations which have consultative status. Consultative status permits an organization to participate in United Nations conferences and to present papers to meetings of the ECOSOC and the Human Rights bodies of the United Nations. Groups in consultative status should be very international and not just an extension of a group from one country. ILGA , an umbrella organization of lesbian and gay organizations from around the world with a flat organizational structure and a commitment to broad participation may be the most international and culturally sensitive organization to have consultative status at the ECOSOC. As a result, it has not had a significant creed test for its member organizations. The U.S. takes this position because if claims that a Munich, Germany group that supports pedophilia is an ILGA member. That group is a member of a German lesbian and gay umbrella group which quit ILGA after its vote on pedophilia in June. The Munich group may mistakingly believe that it is a member. This initiative follows Congress's prohibition (passed last Spring overwhelmingly after introduction my Helms) of payment of US assessed contributions to International organizations of $118 million annually until the President certifies that no Non-Governmental Organizations have consultative status or other official status with the United Nations or any United Nations affiliated agency if the Non-Governmental Organization, or any of its subsidiaries or members, promote, condone or seek the legalization of pedophilia. The legislation, signed by President Clinton, was designed to revoke ILGA's consultative status at the United Nations, which provokes the right wing, which is already trying to defund and destroy international bodies and multilateral organizations. This issue is the result of the reports in summer 1993 in Lambda Report about NAMBLA's membership in ILGA. Lambda Report is now focusing on the Gay Mens S & M Activist Association, claiming that its membership in ILGA is another reason for revoking ILGA"s consultative status. This is clearly an expression of U.S. homophobia on the international scene. --------------------------------------------------------------------- MESSAGE #2 ------------ From: DMack@aol.com Subject: Emergency Response to Effort to Silence Gays at U.N. An earlier posting today reported on the U.S. effort to silence the only voice of the lesbian and gay international community at the United Nations. It is necessary for lesbians and gays, and particularly lesbian and gay organizations to contact the foreign ministry of their country to support the continued consultative status of the International Lesbian and Gay Association with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. This is especially important where your home country is a member of the ECOSOC, which will consider on Friday, September 16, perhaps at 3:00 PM EDT, the suspension of ILGA.'s status. This U.S.-led witch hunt is directed at the lesbian and gay community. The U.S. seems to have limited its investigation to ILGA. It has not investigated any of tthe more than 1000 organizations in consultative status which might have members, individuals or organizations, who engage in pedophilia, advocate pedophilia, condone pedophilia or support changes in the law with respect to pedophilia. Its only evidence that ILGA condones pedophilia is that a German organization, which is a member of an umbrella group which was a member of ILGA and which quit ILGA after the pedophilia vote, has characterized itself as a current member of ILGA. The membership roles of the ILGA administrative office do not include that group. ILGA in 1990 adopted a policy on the protection of children based on the then proposed United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. ILGA made a clear, strong statement on the protection of youth. It should be noted that the U.S. has failed to ratify that convention which ILGA overwhelmingly supports. Yet ILGA, and not the U.S., is the subject of scrutiny because it plays into homophobic stereotypes of lesbians and gays and helps raise funds for homophobic political groups in the United States and elsewhere. ILGA may have a difficult structure for U.S. minds, but it is well-suited to bring together the diverse voices of our community from around the world. ILGA tries to bring together all lesbian and gay groups, whatever their agenda and ideology. ILGA's members have avoided a top-down structure, where the majority could impose views upon a reluctant minority. The advantage of this is that it is open to the different world views and needs of people for Africa, Latin America and Asia by not imposing on those groups a standard of belief system. The weakness of avoiding this form of cultural imperialism is that homophobic critics of ILGA can point to its failure to investigate the policies of its members and its members' members to suggest that ILGA, itself, stands for principals which are inconsistent with the principals and goals of the United Nations. The goal of those critics is to assure that the lesbian and gay community lacks a voice at the United Nations and does not gain any further legitimacy and respectability by having consultative status. Please contact your foreign ministry and ask them to instruct their representative to ECOSOC to support the continued consultative status of ILGA. Please inform your foreign ministry that: The U.S. is wrong about the membership of VSG in ILGA and ILGA on September 2, 1994, informed the U.S. mission of the resignation of the BHV at the ILGA conference because it had a pedophile member. The ILGA resolution did not expel only specific pedophile groups but any group that advocates pedophilia as one of its principal purposes. ILGA is an umbrella organization which represents the diverse global lesbian and gay community. It cannot exercise cultural control over groups to review every policy of its members and applicants. However, if a member advocates pedophilia, under the resolution adopted in July in New York, the group is automatically expelled from ILGA. ILGA has made a good faith effort to rid itself of pedophile groups. With all its resources, the United States has been unable to identify a valid member that has not been expelled. If any are identified, they are automatically expelled. No international umbrella group can convincingly assure the ECOSOC that none of its independent members supports or condones policies inconsistent with international human rights standards. In fact organizations whose positions are at wide variance from traditional human rights standards have consultative status with the ECOSOC. The members of the EOCSOC are Angola Australia Bahamas Bangladesh Belarus Belgium Benin Bhutan Brazil Bulgaria Canada Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Denmark Egypt Ethiopia France Gabon Germany Ghana Greece India Indonesia Ireland Italy Japan Kuwait Libyan Arab Jamalllriya Madagascar Mexico Nigeria Norway Pakistan Paraguay Philippines Poland Portugal Republic of Korea Romania Russian Federation Senegal Sri Lanka Suriname Swaziland Ukraine United Kingdom United Republic of Tanzania United States of America Venezuela Zaire Zimbabwe