From: <[email-masked]>
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: [email-masked]

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: [email-masked]
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