U.S. Votes Against U.N. Ban On Death Penalty For Homosexuality

On Friday, the United Nations voted to pass a resolution banning a death penalty for the crime of being homosexual, and to our immense relief, the motion passed with a vote of 27 to 13.

What isn't so relieving, however, is that the United States was one of the nations to vote against the measure.

Belgium, Benin, Costa Rica, France, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, and Switzerland brought the ban forward, each of these countries having made LGBTQ rights a high priority in their legal initiatives.

The United States voted no, and was joined by Bangladesh, Botswana, Burundi, China, Japan, Qatar, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which currently maintains a death penalty for the crime of sodomy.

The resolution specifically blocks "the imposition of the death penalty as a sanction for specific forms of conduct, such as apostasy, blasphemy, adultery and consensual same-sex relations," according to theLos Angeles Blade.

Read the United Nations' full resolution, here.