From our new writer Aisling

Image from the UN website

Mark it down in your calendars ladies. Today the UN decided you have no rights. Well, not exactly no rights, but certainly no right to be gay. The UN have today passed a resolution which highlights ‘traditional values’. Yes good old traditional values. The ones that kept our Grandmothers in the kitchen and our grand-gayers in the closet. I don’t know about you, but when human rights start to reverse, I get scared.

No UN protection for minorities

So what has this resolution done exactly? Well among other things, it has removed human rights protections from several minority groups. Are you a woman? You have no protection. A homosexual? Oops no protection for you! How about trans*? Sorry guys, no dice. Congratulations if you are a trans* lesbian by the way, you are officially the least protected person. Go get yourself a cupcake, but try not to be the victim of a hate crime on the way.

Image frmo dailydoseofqueer.com

I guess it won’t come as a surprise to anyone when I tell you that Russia is the mastermind for this particular loathsome resolution. You may remember Russia for its consistently piss poor human rights record. They were supported by 25 other countries, including China, Saudi Arabia, North Korea and Syria. Anyone else starting to see a pattern here? This resolution was up for vote against what are essentially the Dream Team of human rights violations. Except now, because of this resolution, they aren’t so bad anymore.

Russian rules

This resolution means that Russia’s gay gag is ok now. It means that they haven’t done anything wrong in banning Moscow Pride for the next hundred years (although, how they feel they can legislate for so far in the future is beyond me. I mean, if we had kept our legislation from 1912 then we’d still have no rights for woman and… oh). It also means that Uganda can argue that the UN supports them in imposing the death penalty on people ‘convicted’ of homosexuality. Trans rights, already close to nonexistent, now could have no UN backing to try and progress. Aside from LGBTQ issues, this also throws up huge problem for women in general, with a woman’s rights also being removed.

This is a huge deal, and we need to make a huge deal about it.

Basically, today the UN decided that tradition was more important than progress. That the only people entitled to human rights, really, are cisgendered men. I’m angry, I’m scared, and you should be too. It’s never a good sign when the bad guys are making the rules. We can’t afford to go back any further. We’re already at the back of the bus. And today, thanks to Russia and the UN, we’re in danger of being kicked off entirely.

If you are as angry about this as I am, please make some noise. Contact Anne Anderson, Ireland’s representative in the UN, and let her know this shit won’t fly.