The U.N. and the Advance of Gender Ideology in the Western Hemisphere

Rick Plasterer on April 16, 2024

An earlier article reviewed a discussion of the advance of gender ideology in Europe by a Heritage Foundation panel on February 27. Jay Richards, moderator of the panel, noted that gender ideology is being pressed by powerful elite institutions, commonly against the popular will.

Grace Melton of the DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family, at the Heritage Foundation moderated a following panel concerning the dominance of gender ideology at the United Nations, and examples of the ideology’s tyranny in the Western Hemisphere. People need to realize “how much the United Nations and its various bodies do to promote gender ideology.” She said that “the U.N. is a place where progressives can push their agendas without political repercussions.” But “gender ideology has a lot of victims.” Women particularly are victims of gender ideology. She asked how a society can combat violence against women if women cease to exist as a category. When ordinary citizens in a society understand “what gender ideology is” they commonly “don’t like it.” But if gender ideologists “can point to this huge international body” admonishing acceptance of the ideology (along with professional associations, it might be added), the ideology can prevail, despite its irrationality. Melton asked Ellie Cohanim, Senior Fellow, Independent Women’s Forum, what gets lost “when gender ideology colors the national conversation?”

Cohanim said that “it’s the real suffering of women that gets lost in the conversation.” She said that “all around the world” women’s voices against abuse are being silenced, really by the hurt feelings of deluded men. Having come from a Middle Eastern home, Cohanim was impressed by the achievements of women’s movements for equality in the West. Much of this is now being lost, she believes. The failure to see women as victims may be part of the reason, she suggested, that there was less protest of the mass and brutal rape that occurred as part of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. She said that “the silence on international women’s organizations was deafening.”

The Cancellation of Women in Canada

Shelley Crowley, Cofounder and Vice President, Women’s Rights Matter Canada, said that because of the introduction of the “online harms bill” in Canada “very soon I won’t be able to talk about this publicly.” This is because the terms “hate” and “harm” have been made so nebulous that they can be used to argue against the protection of women and children. The rights of Canadians have deteriorated considerably in the eight years of Justin Trudeau’s government, she said. It is the most “illiberal” and “authoritarian” government Canada has had in living memory.

For instance, women’s shelters cannot receive funding from the federal government “unless they include men who claim to be women.” She stressed the need to avoid using the terms of gender ideology, such as “trans woman” or “trans man.” Use of false language is not a kindness, but evil and destructive. Canada, she noted, has self-ID, in which one’s testimony as to which sex one belongs to is absolute, it must be accepted without question. She pointed out that there is only one rape shelter in Canada that now accommodates only women, because it does not receive government funding. Women are beginning to “self-exclude” from services that were designed for women. Since 2017, biological men claiming to be women have been incarcerated in women’s prisons to protect their “dignity.” This includes male sex offenders incarcerated in women’s prisons. “The mainstream media will not discuss it.” Women’s sports are being destroyed by male contestants, who have a physical advantage. Women are hauled before employment tribunals for saying on the job that sex is real.

Punishment for Hurting Feelings with the Truth in Mexico

Julio Pohl, Legal Counsel, Latin America, Alliance Defending Freedom International, said that gender ideology permeates the core of the legal system in Mexico and is destroying democracy and freedom in that country. Mexican Congressman Gabriel Quadri posted tweets regarding the depredations of gender ideology. Mexico’s electoral tribunal then sanctioned him, requiring him to delete his tweets, issue an apology written by the tribunal, posted twice a day for fifteen days, with the exact wording the tribunal prescribed. He was required to undergo re-education in gender ideology, is registered as “a gender-based violator,” and may be excluded from running for office. This writer would comment that such a judgment shows how extremely depraved gender ideology is, attempting to force a humiliating apology for standing for truth, and attempting to control elections as might be expected in a communist country.

In another case, a long-time been a critic of gender ideology and a defender of the natural family and the sanctity of human life, Rodrigo Iván Cortés was sanctioned by the Electoral Court for calling a man who says he’s a woman, Mexican congressman Salma Luévano a man who says he’s a woman. Luévano had introduced legislation legally prohibiting religious criticism of gender ideology, or defending doctrines of natural marriage and family while dressed as a “drag pope.” Thus an elected congressman and a civil society leader were silenced, while a transgender congressman, who, like part of the Mexican Congress, was not elected, but is a mere political appointee has tyrannical power. Perhaps most important, the Electoral Court does not defend democracy, but destroys it in the name of hurt feelings based on a delusion. Quadri is a liberal, and Cortez is a conservative, but they agree on the need to protect women and a reality-based society. But at the present time, transgenderism is not a discussable issue in Mexico, and people self-censor. The majority of the population in Mexico is socially conservative, but the elites are focused on imposing a falsehood in the name of kindness.

Advancing the Debasement of Human Rights by the United Nations

Emilie Kao, Senior Counsel, Vice President for Advocacy Strategy, Alliance Defending Freedom, said that the United Nations was founded for a noble purpose, which was to respect human dignity and rights for all people. The U.N. originally explicitly recognized the family as the basic unit of society in Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But today gender activists and U.N. bureaucrats are attempting to change the language of treaties, and thus “change the meaning of human rights.” Parental rights, equal rights for women, and freedom of religion and speech are all endangered. “The rights of the child” are being reinterpreted to include “gender transitioning” (puberty blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones, and sexual anatomy altering (really mutilating) surgery). Parents who reject such irreversible damage to their children are considered “not affirming,” even though the parents are affirming and defending their child’s body, and thus their true sexual nature. Parents are thus cast as dangers to children.

Bureaucratic pronouncements from the U.N. are not binding on states, but it is hoped that nations will adopt the committee recommendations of the U.N., making the U.N. pronouncement hard law. Kao said it is important for member states not to adopt the U.N. language, and continue in the law to refer to sex, not to “gender.”

The U.N. experts also advance the idea that counselors trying to persuade children that they can be comfortable with the sexuality of their bodies is “conversion therapy,” and that such counseling should be illegal, with punishments prescribed for violators. Parents who seek such counseling are held to be guilty of “psychological violence.” (To state the obvious, it is self-assertion against reality which is violence). Additionally, “the right to privacy” is now interpreted not to mean a right of privacy against the state, but against the child’s parents.

Cohanim remarked that gender ideology threatens to endanger the ability of the U.N. or other organizations to protect women in countries in which real, biological women are truly oppressed. She characterized the gender ideology of the West as “a form of postmodern misogyny.”

Challenging Institutional Capture

Melton asked about the impact of “hate speech” laws, and what can be done about them. Pohl responded that ADF is taking the cases he referred to in Mexico to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in hope of getting a better result than can be had from Mexico’s judiciary, which is “permeated” with gender ideology. The American Convention of Human Rights offers a higher standard of freedom of expression, and ADF hopes that the Mexican defendants will prevail there. Parental rights movements in Mexico and other neighboring countries indicates a degree of public support the natural family. A serious problem in many countries is that gender ideology has captured institutions and professional organizations. Psychologists in Brazil are forbidden by their professional association to recommend any course of treatment for their sex-confused patients other than “gender transitioning.” While gender ideology is in large measure coming from the U.S., “it affects gravely all the other countries” in the region.

Kao said that the World Health Organization is being captured by gender ideology. What had been called “transsexualism,” and classed as a mental illness has been re-defined to be “gender incongruence,” or the feeling that one’s psychological self does not match one’s sexed body. WHO is now seeking “to expand access to [cross-sex] hormones all over the world.” After pushback from social conservatives, including the Heritage Foundation, WHO will no longer advocate for the gender transitioning for children, but remains deeply influenced by gender activists through WHO’s guideline development group, which does not include de-transitioners or other critics of gender ideology. WHO promotes “gender self-ID” (or self-defined sex). This means that people should be accepted and treated as belonging to whichever sex they want, despite the devastating effect on women.  Kao added that gender ideology language remains in the upcoming pandemic agreement.

The U.S. is the greatest funder of WHO, giving even above its prescribed amount. Citizens should hold the U.S. government accountable for supporting WHO and its destructive policies, Kao said. Cohanim pointed out that another source of WHO funding is the Pritzker family, which supports transgender activism. Through the Tawani Foundation, Pritzker is training the next generation of gender activists. She said that “academia in Canada is completely destroyed by gender ideology and money.” To understand the power of gender ideology in the world today, we should focus on “following the money.”

James J. Carafano, E.W. Richardson Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, concluded the panel by saying that the real issue in gender ideology is not about particular issues, commonly sexual issues, extending thereby into issues of the parental rights, the family, free speech, and religious freedom, but about power. It is about an elite endeavoring to say what the truth is, and thereby controlling the lives of everyone else in society.

  1. Comment by David on April 16, 2024 at 8:02 am

    There are men who take hormones that cause breast development equal to that of any woman. However, they do not always have their genitals changed. These persons do not fit into any gender-specific facility, but I would say that persons who retain male genitalia should use male or private facilities. At times, they engage in prostitution and become “sex offenders” though it is not of the violent sort.

  2. Comment by JoeR on April 22, 2024 at 6:20 pm

    Once the UN/WHO fully integrate these ideas in Iran,Iraq, Russia, and China then we can talk.
    Until then, take a hike.

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