Negotiating Sexual Rights and Sexual Orientation at the UN
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Negotiating Sexual Rights and Sexual Orientation at the UN
Author
Girard, François
Date
2005Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
On September 8, 1995, in the main plenary hall at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, a group of 35 women from the Lesbian Caucus unfurled
a large banner from a balcony. The banner read: Lesbian Rights are Human Rights.
The action was not without its own drama; the banner was at first unfurled upside down and
the women had to quickly turn it around and drop it again before UN security guards arrived
on the scene. The guards removed the banner and the women were ordered from the hall.
Two of them were held and questioned by UN security before being released. But everyone
in the plenary, including government delegates from 189 countries, had got the message.