Date: 15 Sep 1994 12:16:42 -0400 (EDT)
From: DMack@aol.com

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