Coalition of the Homophobic

On Monday, the United States joined Iran, Zimbabwe, China, Cameroon, and other traditional rivals in denying the International Lesbian & Gay Association (ILGA) and the Danish Association of Gay & Lesbians a hearing to consider their applications to join the United Nations Economic & Social Council (ECOSOC). Membership on the council would have given these organizations an avenue as non-governmental groups (NGO’s) to participate in discussions among members of the U.N. Nearly 3,000 groups enjoy this status. Monday’s vote marked a reversal for the United States of its 2002 position in support of ILGA’s request to have its status reviewed.

“This vote is an aggressive assault by the U.S. government on the right of sexual minorities to be heard,” said Scott Long, director of the LGBT rights program at Human Rights Watch. “It is astonishing that the Bush administration would align itself with Sudan, China, Iran and Zimbabwe in a coalition of the homophobic.”

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This really shouldn’t surprise anyone. When last July Iran executed two teenaged boys for homosexuality (Iran later claimed the crime was the rape of a 13-year-old boy), there was nary a word of criticism from the United States. Furthermore, you are known by the company you keep. In addition to Iran’s recent crimes,

Cameroon arrested eleven men in May 2005 on the suspicion that they engaged in consensual homosexual activity. As of November, the men, all aged seventeen to thirty-five, were still being held without a trial and have been subjected to forced examinations to prove that they engaged in anal intercourse. Medical experts worldwide agree that such examinations amount to torture.

The government of Zimbabwe in May 2005 launched Operation Murambatsvina (“Clear the Filth”), a program of forcible eviction and demolition of tens of thousands of houses and informal building structures of urban residents in Zimbabwe. With little or no warning, and often with great brutality and in complete contravention of national and international standards, tens of thousands of homes, and thousands of informal business properties as well as legal housing and business structures were destroyed without regard for the rights or welfare of those who were evicted.

Throughout 2005, indiscriminate and targeted killings, rape, forced displacement, and looting of Sudanese civilians in Darfur continued to occur at the hands of government-backed Janjaweed militias. An upsurge of attacks occurred in September and October 2005, including targeted attacks on international aid workers and members of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), tasked to monitor the April 2004 ceasefire agreement and protect civilians under imminent threat. Government-supported militias also attacked civilian villages and an internally displaced-persons camp in Aro Sharow, West Darfur.

In December 2005, Chinese authorities shut down Beijing’s first-ever gay and lesbian cultural festival. Organizers planning the Beijing Gay and Lesbian Culture Festival anticipated a groundbreaking weekend of films, plays, exhibitions and seminars about homosexuality, a subject that has long been taboo in China. Participants were to include noted academic researchers, actors, filmmakers and artists, as well as activists for sexual rights and health, specifically HIV/AIDS.

On the plus side, isn’t it nice to see Iran and the United States getting along for once? And, really, what better to bring to sworn enemies together than homophobia and hostility to GLBT rights? Maybe if Al Qaeda added a sentence or two to its statement of principles about how homosexuality is incompatible with the Quran, the United States would be more willing to join them for truce talks.