American Bar Association May Name Sexual Orientation a Human Right

The American Bar Association will vote on the controversial notion that being and acting LGBT is a human right protected in international law.

The resolution will be considered by the ABA House of Delegates at their annual meeting this August in Boston.

The resolution, proposed by James J.S. Holmes, Chairman of the Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, cites a number of international treaties as justification, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Holmes resolution relies on a broad reading of all the cited documents because none of them mentions LGBT, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

Holmes claims, “These rights are articulated in fundamental documents to which almost all nations of the Earth subscribe and that set forth rights belonging to all, regardless of race, national origin, gender, or sexual orientation.

The problem with this assertion is that it does not comport with existing treaties. The Universal Declaration does not protect for “gender,” for instance, and the list is actually longer than the ABA resolution. The protected categories in international law include “race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” Nowhere is there “sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Stefano Gennarini, legal expert with the UN-accredited group C-Fam, explains that the political left has tried for years to get “sexual orientation and gender identity” as a new category of non-discrimination and has failed every time. Some UN committees have asserted this new category, along with the left-wing legal establishment, but no body of states has ever agreed.

Gennarini told Breitbart News, “To say that sexual orientation and gender identity is established as a protected category in international law is far-fetched. The left can hardly get the terms in innocuous UN resolutions, let alone a binding UN treaty.”

Gennarini said, “Individuals who identify as gay or lesbian, or even transgender, are already protected in human rights law, not because of their sexual preference or preferred identity, but because they are human beings. Widely ratified human rights treaties apply to all human beings. It does not mean that certain individuals should have special protections for their sexual preferences.”

He said, “It is unlikely that this movement to have sexual orientation elevated to the same legal status as religion, race, or sex will get very far. Only two regional agreements mention the term sexual orientation and have been ratified by less than 20 countries. The United States is not a party to either.”

If passed the resolution will likely have little impact. The ABA has shrunk in size and influence as it has been taken over by the political left. One legal expert told Breitbart News that fewer than 20% of licensed American lawyers are members.

[Austin Ruse is president of C-Fam.]