"Gay" Activists Seek to "Diversify" U.N. Conference on Racism
By Robert H. Knight
July/August 2001 Family Voice

GENEVA—Everybody here opposes racism. Sudan, which persecutes Christians, opposes racism. India, which still has an unofficial caste system, opposes racism. The nations have gathered here in a preparatory committee meeting (prepcom) to the upcoming U.N. World Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR), which will be in Durban, South Africa, from August 31 to September 7.

I’m representing CWA here primarily because radical activists are trying to insert “sexual orientation” into a list of traits subject to redress for “discrimination.” A few years ago, the U.N. brought pressure on the Australian state of Tasmania when its government refused to overturn sodomy laws— because Australia had signed a U.N. treaty on human rights.

Today, homosexual activists hope to use the anti-racism conference to create a body of world law to punish nations that retain traditional sexual morality. Except for Western Europe, most nations are not interested in homosexual activism. But the wealthier nations can apply pressure to countries that desperately need aid.

Currently, the language in the Declaration and Program of Action on racism contains “sexual orientation” only in brackets, which means the term is not officially accepted.

The U.S. delegation is taking a neutral stance on the issue, according to Debora Carr, chair of the U.S. Interagency Council on WCAR. In a meeting with American nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), Carr said that the United States would not support attempts to include the language in the final draft. She said that a number of Third World nations would lead opposition to the proposal.

I left research on homosexuality with a key delegate, as well as with several of the nations of the “Group of 21,” which is editing the declaration.

During the second week of the prepcom, activists circulated a petition for NGOs in support of adding “sexual orientation” to the declaration. An accompanying statement proclaimed the “universality, indivisibility and interdependence of human rights,” and proposed eliminating “sexism, racism, xenophobia, lesbophobia and homophobia.”

The U.S. delegation’s generally profamily outlook is dramatically different from that of recent years. Under Clinton, the U.S. had promoted abortion and “gay rights,” thus antagonizing nations with traditional values.

Other controversies included: a resolution equating Zionism with racism; minimizing the Holocaust by referring to it in lowercase; and referring to Israel as an alien occupier of Palestine. Miss Carr said that if the prepcom’s final draft included any of these, the United States might even pull out of the Durban conference altogether.

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