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17 UN envoys vow to fight for LGBT rights around the world

(Associated Press)

Fri, June 17, 2016 Published on Jun. 17, 2016 Published on 2016-06-17T09:06:48+07:00

17 UN envoys vow to fight for LGBT rights around the world

French Ambassador to the United Nations François Delattre answers questions during an interview outside the Stonewall Inn before joining a meeting of the United Nations' LGBT Core Group, on June 16, 2016, in New York. In the wake of the Orlando shooting, United States UN Ambassador Samantha Power convened the meeting of the group, a collection of ambassadors from member states concerned with promoting and enshrining LGBT rights at the United Nations and across the globe. (Associated Press/Julie Jacobson)

U

.S. Ambassador Samantha Power and 16 other United Nations envoys have visited the landmark Stonewall Inn, where the modern gay rights movement was sparked, and vowed to step up their fight for the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender people.

Standing in the gay bar that was the scene of a 1969 police raid that set off riots and galvanized the gay rights movement, Power said Thursday that being LGBT is criminalized in many countries and some impose the death penalty for loving someone of the same sex.

"Vigilante violence that is not contested by the state is something that is extremely prevalent," she added.

Netherlands U.N. Ambassador Karel van Oosterom said Sunday's mass killing in a gay bar in Orlando "shows a vulnerability that we need to address urgently." (ags)