UN Votes it's OK to Kill Gays

[Sophus]

Full disgusting story here, if you can stomach it.  

[Matt]

The title is misleading.  Yes, removing sexual orientation from a list of Things To Not Execute People For is terrible and ridiculous, but they're not saying that it's good.

[elliebean]

The title is misleading.  Yes, removing sexual orientation from a list of Things To Not Execute People For is terrible and ridiculous, but they're not saying that it's good.

Yeah, cuz that would be sooooo wrong.  

[Sophus]

By not saying it's wrong they are giving no longer making it an international crime. If it is not a crime countries can now use that to justify their odious actions. Yes, not every country voted in favor for it, but the UN no longer recognizes this as something wrong, thus it is "ok". Not "good" or "encouraged" but apparently appallingly acceptable.

Besides I don't think choice of verbiage is the real issue here.

[Matt]

Mm, I suppose you're right.  I had taken "OK" to be positive rather than indifferent.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I agree with the semantic niggles here, and also agree that removing that clause is pretty crummy.  It should be noted, though, that they are removing LGBTs from a "discriminatory" list that apparently provides no particular protections beforehand, and the only post-mortem effect is to encourage an investigation:

The resolution urges States to protect the right to life of all people, including by calling on states to investigate killings based on discriminatory grounds.

While it makes for bad news, they are certainly not approving, or even accepting as a neutral fact, the murder of LGBTs; nor does this seem to have any teeth for enforcement.  I also disagree with this article's claims that this change renders the murder of LGBTs "invisible" and "unimportant", considering that such issues as crime and punishment are local matters, wherein people look to local government for an expression of views such as this.

Not to say that this isn't bad, but I'd think the passage of localized -- state or national -- laws to be much more important in terms of day-to-day effects.  

What's sad is the homophobia which is reflected in the absence of these local laws, but then, where's the line between hate crime and thoughtcrime?

[Sophus]

I should have mentioned they also voted to suppress religious criticism.

What's sad is the homophobia which is reflected in the absence of these local laws, but then, where's the line between hate crime and thoughtcrime?

It's a good question Thumpy. Ideas can have very dangerous consequences so it's tough to know.

[Inevitable Droid]

The amendment removing the reference to sexual orientation was sponsored by Benin on behalf of the African Group in the UN General Assembly and was adopted with 79 votes in favor, 70 against, 17 abstentions and 26 absent.  

“This vote is a dangerous and disturbing development,” said Cary Alan Johnson, Executive Director of IGLHRC. “It essentially removes the important recognition of the particular vulnerability faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people - a recognition that is crucial at a time when 76 countries around the world criminalize homosexuality

The numbers tell the story, I think.  Apparently there are 192 nations represented in the UN, and of those 192, 76 explicitly criminalize homosexuality.  Thus almost half of the represented nations criminalize the very thing they were voting whether to protect from discrimination.  The odds were in favor of the 76 winning the day, I think, and look, they won.

The UN is only as progressive as its member nations, and some of its member nations aren't progressive at all.

[SSY]

Look at the countries that voted in favour of removing protection from homosexuals.

Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belize, Benin, Botswana, Brunei Dar-Sala, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, China, Comoros, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uzbekistan, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

It reads like a shit list of hell holes. I can honestly say there is not one country there I would ever visit, even before this (maybe the Bahamas or the Maldives).

Edit, also, check out this list

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mu ... _countries

[Thumpalumpacus]

Yeah, I was counting the Islamic countries before I saw your link.  I counted 26 majority and 5 significant-population Muslim countries.  Also to be noted, thugh, is the deep religiosity of the other countries on the list -- Russia and China being the two major exceptions.

I wonder how the faithful feel about joining hands with the two biggest authoritarian states in the world?

[Ultima22689]

This is just sad. I really hope that atheist ark will be ready soon. We'll probably take over 97% of the world's scientists with us as well. XD

Seriously though, I've lost all faith in the UN, this is ridiculous, it's like humanity is being retarded by some unknown force that we can't comprehend..oh..wait.....

[Goathead]

Hmm.... I don't know.  In the history of some of those nations there have been gay war-lords that murdered hundreds, and recently there've even been some revelations about links between homosexuality and the Nazi party, believe it or not.

If someone actually interviewed the 76 nations of our world that made that vote, I think we'd be given a more logical reason than just "homophobia" or "religion". After all, it's 76 governments of the world! 76! I doubt all those educated leaders made those decisions based on just blind superstition. To say so would imply you think that our culture, which embraces homosexuality, is superior to the cultures and customs of other nations- and there's a word for that: it's called racism.

[Sophus]

Hmm.... I don't know.  In the history of some of those nations there have been gay war-lords that murdered hundreds, and recently there've even been some revelations about links between homosexuality and the Nazi party, believe it or not.

If someone actually interviewed the 76 nations of our world that made that vote, I think we'd be given a more logical reason than just "homophobia" or "religion". After all, it's 76 governments of the world! 76! I doubt all those educated leaders made those decisions based on just blind superstition. To say so would imply you think that our culture, which embraces homosexuality, is superior to the cultures and customs of other nations- and there's a word for that: it's called racism.

Umm... excuse me? The Nazis killed gays.
Thinking that the mass murder of innocent people by a government's absurd laws is not racism by any stretch of the imagination. In what way do you think it is ever at all "logical" to kill someone on the grounds that they are gay?

EDIT: Never mind, it's probably just a stupid troll anyways.

[Goathead]

Umm... excuse me? The Nazis killed gays.

They also killed straights. In fact they killed about a hundred times more straight people than gay people. Just what point are you trying to make here?  

In what way do you think it is ever at all "logical" to kill someone on the grounds that they are gay?

Don't misrepresent me. I never said that.

[trexshinigami]

I doubt all those educated leaders made those decisions based on just blind superstition.

Really?  You doubt that?  Gay marriage is getting voted down in states in the US.  There's one example of educated people making decisions based on blind superstition.

To say so would imply you think that our culture, which embraces homosexuality, is superior to the cultures and customs of other nations- and there's a word for that: it's called racism.

What culture exactly embraces homosexuality? I have not experienced one yet.  And having said that I do feel that a culture that extends equal rights to all of it's people is superior over one that does not.  If that opinion is racist then so be it.


And its really disturbing they took homosexuals out.  It doesn't make sense that they would actively remove them unless it was from a discriminatory standpoint.