Trump Embarrasses Himself At UN

There are many of us in reality based America who are feeling the same way as White House Chief of Staff John Kelly who had the displeasure of being in the audience and watching Donald Trump embarrass the nation in front of the entire world during his United Nations General Assembly speech yesterday.

I won't subject you loyal TransGriot readers to the avalanche of idiocy that was on display in New York including Trump throwing juvenile 'Rocket Man' insults at North Korea's Kim Jong Un and threatening to 'totally destroy' North Korea from the Un podium after its delegation walked out before his speech.

Great, two egomaniacal idiots armed with nukes trying to one up each other. This is not going to turn out well.

Do y'all miss this man, the 44th president of the United States?

In case you forgot, this is what a UN speech given by an intelligent, exceptional president of the United States looks and sounds like.

And this is just a taste of what we would have gotten had we elected Hillary Clinton last year, the most qualified person in over a century regardless of gender to run for the presidency.



But instead, we got a nekulturny idiot who isn't qualified to be POTUS, much less sit in the Oval Office and run this country.

Even more distressing to me as a Cold War baby, this man has his fingers on the nuclear launch codes.

And it ain't just Moni and other people across the US saying it and proclaiming his white supremacist behind is an embarrassment.   The media around the world is also saying that Trump is unfit to be POTUS.

Exhibit A:  Germany's Der Spiegel, where the Leader of the Free World Angela Merkel, assuming that she and her party win in the upcoming German federal elections this Sunday. is still chancellor.

'Donald Trump is not fit to be president of the United States. He does not possess the requisite intellect and does not understand the significance of the office he holds nor the tasks associated with it. He doesn’t read. He doesn’t bother to peruse important files and intelligence reports and knows little about the issues that he has identified as his priorities. His decisions are capricious and they are delivered in the form of tyrannical decrees.'
-Der Spiegel

Trump has embarrassed himself and the country once again on the world's biggest international stage.  Sad!

Prime Minister Trudeau's First UN Speech

Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson may not be able to name a foreign leader he admires, but I can rattle off a long list of them.

One of the top people on my list is Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who recently gave his first UN General Assembly speech at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

And yeah, Prime Minister Trudeau called out a certain oompa-loompa running for president without mentioning him by name.

Here is the Prime Minister's UN speech.

65th Anniversary Of UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
--UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights preamble, December 10, 1948

In the wake of the horrific human rights violations committed during World War II, the newly organized UN General Assembly, led by a committee chaired by former US First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt spent 18 months drafting this landmark UN document which was adopted on December 10, 1948. 

The original drafters of the document in addition to Commission chair Eleanor Roosevelt (US) were Dr. Charles Malik (Lebanon), Alexandre Bogomolov (USSR), Dr. Peng-chun Chang (China), René Cassin (France), Charles Dukes (United Kingdom), William Hodgson (Australia), Hernan Santa Cruz (Chile), and John P. Humphrey (Canada).

The task was even more remarkable considering this was occurring during the outbreak of the East-West  Cold War tensions between the US and USSR that would dominate international world affairs for the next four and a half decades.

December 10 was the 65th anniversary of the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.   It is one of the most translated documents in human history and serves as an aspirational goal for all those who strive for full human rights coverage. 

In fact, Nelson Mandela used the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a model for the 1996 South African Constitution.  During the year the document celebrated its 50th anniversary, Mandela addressed the UN General Assembly on September 21, 1998 and challenged them to work harder to enforce the words of the declaration for years to come. 

He said at the time, “The new constitution obliges us to strive to improve the quality of life of the people. In this sense, our national consensus recognizes that there is nothing else that can justify the existence of government but to redress the centuries of unspeakable privations, by striving to eliminate poverty, illiteracy, homelessness and disease. It obliges us, too, to promote the development of independent civil society structures.”document


I've pointed out since 2007 that the trans rights struggle is an international human rights struggle grounded in not only our various national constitutions, but the International Bill of Gender Rights drafted 20 years ago at the 1993 ICTLEP Conference in Houston, the Yogyakarta Principles, and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  

When I say that we have the moral high ground in our trans human rights struggle, these are the documents I point to along with the US Constitution when I talk about trans human rights in a national and international context. 

It's also heartening to note on the anniversary date of the adoption of the UN Declaration of Human Rights that the UN is increasingly getting the message that trans rights are an international human rights issue.  

Back in 2011 the same UN Human Rights Council that penned the Declaration passed a resolution sponsored by South Africa, Brazil and 38 other nations that not only affirmed the universality of human rights, but noted concern about acts of violence and discrimination aimed at people based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

On September 26 there was a first ever ministerial meeting on LGBT rights convened at the UN Headquarters in New York to discuss advancements for protecting the human rights of LGBT persons and to secure commitments from UN member states toward making the protection of TBLG citizens in those member states and elsewhere in the world a reality.

It's UN International Mandela Day

Today is the 93rd birthday of former South African President Nelson Mandela, and it is also the second observance of UN Nelson Mandela International Day. 

It was officially declared by the United Nations General Assembly in November 2009, with the first official UN celebration of it occurring on his July 18 birthday last year.   There were other groups that celebrated it on July 18, 2009. 

Here's a videotaped message from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about today.



UN Mandela Day is basically an international call to action that celebrates the idea that each individual has the power to transform the world and make an impact. 

They ask that people take 67 minutes out of their day, equivalent to the 67 years that Mandela fought for social justice.   And to borrow from the statement that was issued for this day on behalf of Mandela, "do something to bring people around the world together to help fight poverty, promote peace and reconciliation."

Happy birthday Madiba, and let's get busy changing the world. 
 

Trans Left Out Again-This Time By The UN

Damn, can my trans brothers and trans sisters get any love in any organizational body this holiday season?

Despite having transpeople such as Sass Rogando Sasot and Miss Major testify in front of UN commissions about the discrimination and violence we face around the world, when it came time for the UN to stand and deliver on a resolution on unjustified killings, guess who was left in the cold again?

Every two years the UN General Assembly passes resolutions condemning extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions and other killings.   The resolution condemns killings for racial, national, ethnic, religious or linguistic reasons and killings of refugees, indigenous people and other groups.   In 2008 an explicit reference condemning killing based on the victim's sexual orientation was inserted into the resolution. .


Last month there was a resolution sponsored by Muslim, Caribbean and African nations in the UN General Assembly's Human Rights Committee to delete the sexual orientation reference in that extrajudicial killings resolution .    The successful action by the Bloc of Haters to remove it triggered a firestorm of criticism from Western nations, human rights organizations and activists around the world.

It led to a resolution sponsored by the United States to restore the 'sexual orientation' reference that was removed last month with the main opposition coming from the same nations that led the push to remove it.

The resolution to restore the language passed in committee with 93 votes in favor, 55 against and 27 abstentions.  It then went to the 192 nation member UN General Assembly and passed with 122 YES votes, none against and 59 abstentions.

"Today, the United Nations General Assembly has sent a clear and resounding message that justice and human rights apply to all individuals regardless of their sexual orientation," said US Ambassador to the UN Dr. Susan Rice in a statement.

Boris Dittrich of Human Rights Watch echoed Dr. Rice.  "We are relieved by the result of the vote," he said in a statement "Countries that tried to roll back crucial protections for gay and lesbian people have been defeated."

Congratulations* GL community.  While once again you've had your human rights affirmed and this time in an international arena, the human rights of the trans people around the world who are taking the brunt of the hate casualties are left hanging.

It's days like this that make me wonder does anybody give a damn or even care that our humanity as transpeople is under attack?    Did y'all forget this and the fact that transpeople around the world are being brutally murdered in extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions and other killings when the UN General Assembly had this vote?  

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Do justice and human rights apply to trans people as well?   Because the 'all peoples of all nations'  part of the UN Declaration of Human Rights we submit includes trans people as well.

Oh well, maybe in 2012 we transpeople will qualify for inclusion in this UN resolution