Remember that big blogosphere storm around the end of November about the UN supposedly voting to approve execution of people for being gay? There were a number of disappointing things about how that was reported, and one that I’ve only just found out is that it was only a committee vote. It doesn’t come into effect unless it is ratified by a vote of the General Assembly. That vote will happen on December 20th.

The UN Secretary-General and the US Ambassador to the UN are pushing hard to have the vote reversed, and to add gender identity as a specifically protected category, but they could do with some grass roots help. There’s not a lot most of us can do. Europe, North America, Australasia and a number of major countries such as Brazil, Argentina, India and Japan are all solidly in line. Russia and China are being awkward for political reasons, and there’s not a lot that can be done about countries with military dictatorships or hardline religious leaders. But there are a lot of small countries, and most of Africa, on the other side. So if you happen to have connections with the Caribbean, or somewhere in Africa, please look here for details of how to pressure your government.

For everyone else there is a petition to sign. (The actual voting form is suffering traffic overload right now, but will hopefully be back up later.)