On Wednesday Obama signed the United Nations General Assembly statement calling for the protection and decriminalization of sexual minorities, “LGBTIs” (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgendered and intersexed). Bush was the only leader of a major Western nation not to do so at the December 2008 UN meeting.
I saw that. I’m really excited. He is pulling us back out of the stone age.
I’m sure all the trannies and shemales in Pattaya are jumping for joy, even as we speak. I wiggling for joy. Whatever 
T.
Too bad it will do nothing to help anyone on death row for being gay.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:World_homosexuality_laws.svg
You’d need to go to those predominantly Islamic countries, especially Iran, where such a thing occurs and explain our human rights moral universe to them. I don’t think, judging from their reply to the Obama overture, that they’re too willing to take any guidance from us, as yet. Most of those nations are taking a very long view on things, and whether they win out in 50 years or 300 makes no difference to them. And I don’t believe too many of them are all that cowed by a declaration of purpose from our “united nations.” I realize that sounds jaded, but I see much to dislike about human nature over these last centuries and not enough to like, sadly.
T.
Exactly - The UN is irrelevant in most counties who don’t support minority rights. The UN is probably viewed as an agent of Satan.
It is embarassment that the US refused to sign it. Will it change anything, no, but the fact that Bush wouldn’t sign it sends a pretty poor message on how the US felt about gay rights.
You’re correct. Or as a tool to be exploited when it suits the purposes of some country or another. We’ve been guilty of exploiting it ourselves in the past, which doesn’t excuse its manipulation by more than a few countries who will NEVER understand basic human rights.
T.
It is embarassment that the US refused to sign it. Will it change anything, no, but the fact that Bush wouldn’t sign it sends a pretty poor message on how the US felt about gay rights.
what are you talking about? perhaps GWB was simply taking a position consistent with the US population. Majority of US citizens are against things like gay marriage.
Moot point for Iran, since there are no homosexuals over there. So I’m told.
It is embarassment that the US refused to sign it. Will it change anything, no, but the fact that Bush wouldn’t sign it sends a pretty poor message on how the US felt about gay rights.
what are you talking about? perhaps GWB was simply taking a position consistent with the US population. Majority of US citizens are against things like gay marriage.
The resolution is to decriminalize homosexuality. This has nothing to do with marriage.
I’m guessing the majority feel homosexuality should not be a criminal offense.
“the fact that Bush wouldn’t sign it sends a pretty poor message on how the US felt about gay rights.”
A couple of notes. First, do you suppose that the U.S. somehow felt one way about gay rights when Pres Bush didn’t sign this, and magically feels differently now? Second, I think the U.S. not signing a piece of UN paper says more about our disdain for the UN than for any particular cause.
Bush was actually going against the majority of Americans.
I will yet again pull out stats I gave you on another thread. Read the entire survey, not just the title.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/108115/Americans-Evenly-Divided-Morality-Homosexuality.aspx
Gay marriage, yes, still a majority against but wide majority are in favor of gay rights in the broad sense of the term.
Despite Americans’ divided reaction to homosexuality on a moral basis, the majority believes homosexual relations should be legal (55%) and accepted as an alternative lifestyle (57%).
**
Support for the legality of homosexual relations has advanced and receded over the years, beginning at 43% when Gallup first asked about it in 1977. Support then dipped in the 1980s to the low 30s, but gradually increased through the 1990s and reached 60% in May 2003.
**
In July 2003 (shortly after a U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down a Texas sodomy law) it fell to 50% and remained at about that level through 2005. However, in May 2006 it jumped to 56%, and since then a clear majority has agreed that homosexual relations should be legal.
**
Bottom Line
Gallup polling chronicles important changes in public attitudes about homosexuality and gay rights over the past quarter century. Americans have shifted from frowning on homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle and being divided over whether it should be legal, to now supporting gay rights on both fronts. At the same time, the country remains highly ambivalent about the morality of homosexual relations, and as a result, support for legalizing gay marriage lags far behind the less culturally sensitive matter of gays having equal job rights.
**
Americans have generally grown more supportive of gay rights since 2001, reaching record high support on most measures in 2007; however, there has been no further increase in support over the past year.
Preventing unnecessary domestic legal complications is the only defense I’ve found for Bush’s refusal to sign the statement:
Human rights groups had criticized the Bush administration when it refused to sign the statement when it was presented at the United Nations on Dec. 19. U.S. officials said then that the U.S. opposed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation but that parts of the declaration raised legal questions that needed further review.
According to negotiators, the Bush team had concerns that those sections could commit the federal government on matters that fall under state jurisdiction. In some states, landlords and private employers are allowed to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation; on the federal level, gays are not allowed to serve openly in the military.
But Wood said a “careful interagency review” by the Obama administration had concluded that “supporting this statement commits us to no legal obligations.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090318/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_gay_rights
Assuming the December 19 above refers to 2008, I can’t imagine it was a politically motivated decision - at least not predominantly. Had it been any year before 2004, I probably wouldn’t be so generous.
Overall, a step in the right direction.
It is embarassment that the US refused to sign it. Will it change anything, no, but the fact that Bush wouldn’t sign it sends a pretty poor message on how the US felt about gay rights.
what are you talking about? perhaps GWB was simply taking a position consistent with the US population. Majority of US citizens are against things like gay marriage.
- Only 53% of American adults know how long it takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun.
- Only 59% of American adults know that the earliest humans and dinosaurs did not live at the same time.
- Only 47% of American adults can roughly approximate the percent of the Earth’s surface that is covered with water.
- Only 21% of American adults answered all three questions correctly.
Just because a lot of people believe something stupid doesn’t mean it isn’t stupid.
**A couple of notes. First, do you suppose that the U.S. somehow felt one way about gay rights when Pres Bush didn’t sign this, and magically feels differently now? Second, I think the U.S. not signing a piece of UN paper says more about our disdain for the UN than for any particular cause. **
I think Obama actually listened to what a majority of the US thinks and Bush didn’t. As far as signing a piece of paper or not, seems to be a pretty poor choice of things not to sign. But, that’s just my opinion.
“Only 53% of American adults know how long it takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun.”
How many Americans know that the Earth revolves around its axis and orbits around the Sun?
- Only 53% of American adults know how long it takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun.
- Only 59% of American adults know that the earliest humans and dinosaurs did not live at the same time.
- Only 47% of American adults can roughly approximate the percent of the Earth’s surface that is covered with water.
- Only 21% of American adults answered all three questions correctly.
Just because a lot of people believe something stupid doesn’t mean it isn’t stupid.
similarly, just because a minority of people believe an alternative lifestyle is acceptable to them, does not make it acceptable to all.
“Only 53% of American adults know how long it takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun.”
How many Americans know that the Earth revolves around its axis and orbits around the Sun?
Wrong. The earth actually rotates around it’s axis and revolves around the sun.
Revolve and Orbit have specific meanings in astronomy that are used correctly in the poll.
The earth revolves around the sun, and completes one revolution in one year. So an orbit describes how a planet revolves around its sun. Orbit means the path or trajectory of a revolving body around another - a moon about a planet or that planet about the sun.
The turning of a planet on its axis is called rotation. The earth’s rotation causes night and day. To rotate means to spin around on an axis, like a top.
"The resolution is to decriminalize homosexuality. This has nothing to do with marriage. "
You need to read the UN statement. Yes, it resolves to decriminalize various sexual or gender choices, but it also condemns violations including the deprivation of “social and cultural rights.” Sounds like gay marriage to me.