The UN bureaucracy has just issued a series of six commemorative LGTB stamps through the UN stamp office. The stamps are explicit and depict both male and female same-sex couples kissing, a same-sex couple with a young child, and a butterfly figure presumably depicting a transsexual.
The stamps were unveiled this afternoon in the atrium of the General Assembly hall at UN headquarters in New York against the backdrop of a giant painting of naked figures dancing around a fire presided over by a nude statue of the Greek God of the sea Poseidon.
The rollout featured a 33 strong representation of the all-male New York City Gay Men’s Chorus singing “seasons of love” from the Broadway musical Rent and other popular love songs.
A Reuters UN correspondent introduced the unveiling and asked, “who would have thought we could be get so excited about stamps in the digital age?” She encouraged all in attendance to purchase stamps to “spread the message.”
A representative of the UN Secretary General spoke in the crowded General Assembly atrium where the event took place about the need to “address stereotypes” and “change attitudes,” and highlighted the UN’s commitment to just this through the new stamps.
Charles Radcliffe, who heads the UN’s LGBT Free and Equal Campaign thanked the coir for “filling the UN with the music of love.”
The normally phlegmatic Radcliffe appeared tense at the event.
Last night the Group of Friends of the Family spearheaded by Belarus, Qatar, and Egypt sent a letter to the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asking that he prevent the issuance of the stamps and cancel the event. The letter said the promotion of LGBT rights was a “deeply controversial agenda” and that there was no “mandate” for it.
In effect, no UN treaty includes LGBT rights. No UN treaty protects homosexual conduct or can be fairly interpreted in that way.
“Why focus on LGBT?” Radcliffe asked at the event, pointing to the wars, terrorism, hunger that currently affects so many people.
He answered by pointing to 76 countries that penalize sodomy. “Everyday the UN is working to get these laws repealed,” he said. He also claimed that every year hundreds of people who identify as LGBT die and thousands are hurt because of violence.
UN artist Sergio Baradat who created the images on the stamps said he strived for the “beautiful, elegant, and loving.” He teared up as he presented his work, letting the crowd understand that he himself identifies as LGBT. It was he, Radcliffe said, who had the idea for the stamps.
The stamps capture the efforts of the UN bureaucracy to promote LGBT rights through the “Free and Equal Campaign” an initiative of the UN Secretary General’s human rights bureaucracy financed by Nordic countries that promotes a right to engage in sodomy, same-sex marriage, and other LGBT rights. The initiative is controversial because the Secretary General launched the campaign in 2012 without the support the full membership of the United Nations. To this day, the support is not forthcoming.
Find stamps here: https://unstamps.org/shop/free-and-equal/
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