Far-right activists are trying to dismantle global protections for LGBTQ+ people under the guise of ‘family values’.
While the United Nations was hosting its annual General Assembly, several key figures filled a room in a near hotel. Attendees included Trump administration officials, leaders of anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups, far-right politicians from Latin America and reporters from far-right media.
These people were meeting for the Global Forum for Life, Family and Freedoms, a two-day summit of right-wing leaders with an ambitious goal to create a new “pro-family” Core Group at the UN.
Since 2008, the UN has had an LGBTI Core Group with 42 member states whose mission is to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights on a global stage. The US left this Core Group, an early move by Trump in his second term.
The organizers of this new group hope to create an opposing organization to push for policies that undermine LGBTQ+ rights around the globe. They think the existing LGBTI Core Group has only been successful because there has not been organized conservative opposition, which a new core group would provide.
Core groups are not official UN bodies, so there is no strictly required procedure for their creation. The LGBTI group is unique in that it is designed for continuous operation on multiple issues rather than as a response to a specific conflict or crisis. The “pro-family” core group would change that, threatening to shift the balance of power at the UN.
Besides Trump officials, behind this initiative there are far-right activists from Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, Guatemala, Canada, Armenia and Dutchland. Other interested countries would be Uganda, Burundi, Saudi Arabian and also Russia.
Maria Sjödin, executive director of Outright International, an NGO that focuses on supporting LGBTQ rights worldwide, warns that the plans, and the danger they present, must be taken seriously. “Currently, we are seeing quite an extensive and horrendous backlash against LGBTQ+ people,” she says. “What they potentially want to do here is to actually make inclusion of everyone more difficult.”
