UNITED NATIONS — The Islamic State extremist group has claimed responsibility for executing at least 30 people for sodomy, the head of an international gay rights organization said Monday at the first-ever U.N. Security Council meeting spotlighting violence and discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people.
“It’s about time, 70 years after the creation of the U.N., that the fate of LGBT persons who fear for their lives around the world is taking center stage,” said U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power, who organized the meeting with Chile’s U.N. envoy. “This represents a small but historic step.”
Diplomats said two of 15 council members, Chad and Angola, did not attend the informal, closed meeting.
Jessica Stern, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, told the council that courts established by the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria claim to have punished sodomy with stoning, firing squads and beheadings and by pushing men from tall buildings.
The extremist group controls about a third of Syria and Iraq.
