US pols demand Rice repudiate UN vote

Sirius Satellite Radio (Air Date: February 8, 2006)

Anchor:
More than forty U-S lawmakers have written a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, demanding that she denounce America's role in a January vote to keep two gay rights groups off a UN council.

From New York, Aaron McQuade has the story.

Reporter:
Last month, the U-N Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations voted to approve eleven groups as consultants to the U-N Economic and Social Council. The committee also voted DOWN the applications of two groups - the International Lesbian and Gay Association, and the Danish Association of Gays and Lesbians.

Ten of the nineteen member nations voted to reject the gay groups, including Iran, Zimbabwe, Sudan - and the United States.

On Tuesday, forty-five lawmakers, including congressmen Eliot Engel and Dennis Kucinich, sent a letter to the state department, calling on Secretary of State Rice to renounce last month's vote, and to offer the state's support to three other gay rights groups whose applications are pending.

In a response to a similar letter from openly-gay congressman Barney Frank last week, the administration blamed the vote on a former association between the International Lesbian & Gay Association, and the "North American Man/Boy Love Association," which the government says supports pedophilia. According to Gay-dot-com, the ILGA expelled NAMBLA in 1994.

Aaron McQuade, Sirius OutQ News, New York. ...