SCM Responds to UN's recent anti-LGBT Decision
12/14/2010
The Student Christian Movement of Canada, a member of the World Student Christian Federation which has the highest consultative status for NGOs through ECOSOC, is outraged by the recent decision of the UN to deliberately remove “sexual orientation” from a resolution that protects people from arbitrary executions. As an organization whose mandate it is to protect and uphold human rights throughout the world, it is completely unacceptable that the UN has voted to deny protection to a group of people based on their sexual orientation.
We believe that all people are created in the image of God and that just as our understanding of the nature of God is ever-changing, so our genders, sexualities, and sexual and gender expressions are fluid, constructed, and unique to individual experience. Safe, consensual, and anti-oppressive expressions of gender and sexuality safeguard the dignity and worth of all people. Laws that run counter to expressions of this dignity and worth are exploitative and unjust.
All over the world, queer communities face immense discrimination in the form of physical violence, imprisonment, jailings, arrests, deportations, and many others. Oftentimes, this discrimination and our understandings of sexuality, gender, and multiple forms of oppression come through a lens of many social factors, including but not limited to race, ability, class privilege and colonial history.
When certain groups are alienated and denied protection of such a basic human right as protection from arbitrary execution, we as a human family become complicit in an injustice that alienates us all and perpetuates broken relationships.
The Student Christian Movement of Canada believes that all peoples have right to live in an environment that welcomes and affirmssafe, consensual, and anti-oppressive expressions of gender and sexuality. With this in mind, we call on the UN immediately reverse its vote to remove “sexual orientation” from the resolution protecting humans from arbitrary executions and work to protect ALL human beings from violence.
†SCM understands that “queer” is a term used by some individuals, groups and communities to describe their sexual orientation, sexual expression, gender identity and/or gender expression, as they may not associate with all or some other terms used in relation to sexual and gender diversity. The term queer is also often used as an umbrella or blanket term to refer to LGBTTT2IQQAPPBDSMK† and ally communities. The term queer has a history of being used as an oppressive term and is being reclaimed by some individuals, communities and activists. It is important to recognize that queer is still experienced as an uncomfortable and/or oppressive term for many individuals, groups and/or communities who identify as queer or to whom the term may be applied.
(†LGBTTT2IQQAPPBDSMK: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans*, Transgender, Transsexual, 2-Spirit, Intersex, Queer, Questioning, Asexual, Pansexual, Polyamorous, Bondage, Domination, Discipline, Sadism, Masochism, Kink)
