At
UN,
Bid to Strip
Sexual
Orientation
Also Targeted
Foreign
Occupation,
Lost 53-82
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 19 --
At the UN when
the terms
“sexual
orientation”
or “gender
identity” come
up, the
culture wars
begin. But in
the November
19 votes on a
resolution on
“Extrajudicial,
summary or
arbitrary
executions,”
it was a
culture-war
double-whammy.
Egypt
on behalf of
the
Organization
for Islamic
Cooperation
put forward an
amendment
which would
have stripped
out the
paragraph, OP
6(b), which
included
killings
“persons...
because of
their sexual
orientation
or gender
identity.”
But also in
the paragraph
to be stripped
was a
reference to
“persons...
living under
foreign
occupation.”
In
UN-ese:
Palestine.
Inner
City Press was
told about
this double
whammy on
November 18,
and
early on
November 19
asked the
Permanent
Representative
of an OIC
member country
how it would
be resolved.
The answer was
that yes,
Palestine was
an issue; the
prediction was
that the
conflict would
be
resolved.
But
it wasn't:
during the
debate on the
OIC amendment,
put forward by
Egypt,
delegates
inter-mixed
the terms
sexual
orientation
and
Palestine,
along with the
words
laundry-list
and, in the
case of
Sudan,
International
Criminal
Court.
Call
it a
triple-whammy,
then.
Albania
said
that would
vote against
the OIC
amendment,
citing the
killing of
gays. When the
vote was
called the
Egyptian / OIC
amendment
lost,
with 53 in
favor, 82
against and 24
abstaining.
A
recorded vote
was called for
on the
resolution as
a whole, and
Finland asked
to know who'd
asked for it.
“Egypt,” came
the
answer. And
while the
resolution was
adopted with
111 for, one
against and 64
abstentions,
even that one
“no” was
called into
question when
Kiribati
belatedly
tried to
change it to
“abstain.”
The
Committee's
Secretary, who
previously
played the
same role for
the Fifth
(Budget)
Committee,
explained that
while the
Secretariat
“took note” of
what Kiribati
said, it “will
not alter
outcome.”
So that one
“no” stands -
stands alone.
And the
culture wars
will
continue.
, 
