ILGA responds to accusations about NAMBLA

A recent commenter accused International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) of secretly keeping NAMBLA (a pedophilia supporting group) on its membership rolls. I was curious about this so I wrote ILGA and asked if NAMBLA was still on a secret list. Here is the first reply from Stephen Barris, at ILGA:

Dear Warren,

There is no such thing as a secret list of ILGA members and our lists are available to the public. We do have though members which wish to remain confidential for the simple reason same sex is criminalised in their country. NAMBLA was expelled in 94 and a series of amendments where voted by ILGA members to ensure groups condoning paedophilia would not be able to become members of the federation. Our federation has not had any such group since 94. You can find a public statement on that matter under the section “About ILGA” on ilga.org.

On the home page, you will also find a report on State sponsored homophobia in the world. As you will notice, 85 UN members states still have discriminatory laws against LGBT people. Those are the same states who sit at the United Nations. The NAMBLA case is but an excuse not to recognise LGBT groups as representatives of the civil society at the UN. After 13 years though and thanks to our ECOSOC campaign, things are slowly changing and three groups, including the European Region of ILGA obtained observer status last year. You can read the full report on this campaign on ILGA’s home page.

I then wrote and asked if there was a published list of organizations which belong to ILGA and Mr. Barris sent this list. He said some member groups from countries where laws prohibit homosexuality are not listed.

By including this information, I am not supporting the work of ILGA. I know very little about it or the political issues involved. I simply provide this information in the service of fairness.