With the ongoing fights in Arizona, California, and Florida to make same-sex marriage illegal, some good news for LGBT people worldwide; the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has granted consultative status to two groups that work on sexual orientation and gender identity. The two groups approved on July 21 and 22, 2008 are COC Netherlands and the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals of Spain (FELGTB), national organizations representing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the Netherlands and Spain.
Consultative status is a key means for civil society to access the United Nations. It allows nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to deliver oral and written reports at UN meetings, and to organize events on UN premises worldwide. With it, these groups can share their information and analysis of the abuses and discrimination LGBT people confront around the world.
“States from all five regions voted to overturn the negative recommendation from the NGO Committee in regards to FELGTB Spain,” said Philipp Braun, co-secretary general of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA). “We would like the committee to acknowledge the repeated message sent by ECOSOC that it should recommend LGBT groups. We also congratulate our members COC and FELGTB on their victory.”
Marriage is currently available to same-sex couples in six countries. The Netherlands was the first country to allow same-sex marriage in 2001. Same-sex marriages are also legal in Belgium, Canada, Norway, South Africa and Spain, along with two states in the United States, Massachusetts and recently California.
In 2005, Spain became the first country in the world to recognize same-sex marriage on equal terms while at the same time allowing gays to adopt and receive artificial insemination on the same terms as heterosexuals.
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