Religious Right Figures Among U.S. Delegation to U.N. Commission on the Status of Women

The 61st session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women will take place at United Nations headquarters in New York City on March 13-24. The Commission on the Status of Women brings together representatives of U.N. member states and non-governmental organizations to promote women's empowerment and equality around the world. To the horror of LGBTQ and women's rights groups, Religious Right figures will be representing the U.S. at the meeting.

According to a March 13th press release, the U.S. State Department will include representatives from two right-wing organizations in its delegation to the 61st session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women. Lisa Correnti, executive vice-president of the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-FAM) and Grace Melton, Association for Social Issues at the U.N for the Heritage Foundation, will be part of the delegation. (Hat tip to Reuters.)

C-FAM and its president, Austin Ruse, have a long history of opposing LGBTQ equality and women's reproductive rights at home and at the United Nations. As recently as March 9th, C-FAM issued a statement criticizing U.N. staff for their resistance to the newly reinstated "global gag rule".

The Heritage Foundation's resume is more varied, but its right-wing credentials are solid. For decades, the Heritage Foundation has been a major mover-and-shaker of the American right, and is currently active in the push for "religious freedom" (which, as interpreted by the Religious Right, would allow anti-LGBTQ discrimination on the basis of religious beliefs). Right Wing Watch has documented the anti-LGBTQ activism of Heritage Foundation senior fellow Ryan Anderson. The organization has also engaged in troubling activism to undermine reproductive rights and oppose Planned Parenthood.

I doubt that representatives of C-FAM and the Heritage Foundation will have the best interests of all women -- women seeking reproductive health services, lesbian women, bisexual women, transgender women -- at heart during the 61st session meeting. By appointing representatives of these two organizations to its delegation, the U.S. State Department has signaled its indifference to women's reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights to the world.

Activists have condemned the decision. In a March 15th open letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Human Rights Campaign urged the State Department to rescind the appointments of Correnti and Melton.

"If the United States is truly committed to improving the lives of women, including LBTQ women, in the U.S. and beyond, then Lisa Correnti and Grace Melton and the organizations they represent should not be the public face of our delegation. We urge you to immediately rescind the appointment of these delegates who do not represent our shared American values."

In a March 15th press release, Out Right International observed that it is "a bad sign that two organizations that have tried to delegitimize the United Nations and human rights internationally now sit on the official US delegation."

"In their Senate confirmation hearings, Secretary of State Tillerson and US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley repeatedly pledged to uphold the right to be free from discrimination as an American value. The appointment of these organizations to the official US delegation undermines their positions. I urge Secretary Tillerson and Ambassador Haley to ensure that the US delegation maintains non-discrimination at the CSW in the face of obvious pressure from these newly appointed members of the delegation.

Fundamentalist notions about how women and girls should behave should never be the basis of advising or negotiating US foreign policy."

These delegation choices are another example of how the Trump administration is choosing foxes to guard the hen houses. Rest assured, women's rights activists and LGBTQ equality activists will continue to teach the world about the needs of their communities -- and remind the world that the Religious Right doesn't speak for them.


To read additional commentary, visit the following links.

Right Wing Watch: Trump Names C-Fam, Heritage To U.S. Delegation To UN Commission On Status Of Women

Dallas Voice: Trump administration embarrasses U.S. again by appointing hate group members to U.N. women’s rights meeting

Human Rights Watch: U.S. Sends Group Rejecting Rights to UN Women’s Commission