At a recent ceremony at United Nations headquarters, six new postage stamps were unveiled. They were created by UN artist Sergio Baradat and are meant to elevate homosexuality, transsexuality and gay parenting. The stamps are very colorful and done in a sort of geometric art deco style. One depicts a male couple embracing and kissing; another a female couple doing the same. One shows a same sex couple carrying a little girl on their shoulders. Another shows a person coming out of a closet. There’s a stamp bearing a human butterfly figure, representing someone’s evolution as a transsexual. And one stamp is a picture of a bunch of people bearing different colors and designs. That one is an overall characterization of the UN human rights office’s “Free and Equal” campaign under which the stamps were created and which aims to promote what the office calls “fair treatment tor the gay and lesbian community.”

UN stamps are released in dollar denominations, so you’ll see these around. This is the first time the UN has ever released stamps with a gay theme and the action did not take place without controversy. The Center for Family and Human Rights, or C-Fam, reports that nearly half the UN member states opposed the stamps even up to the eve of their unveiling. Stefano Gennarini writes in C-Fam’s Friday Fax that the opposition included three “powerful UN blocs totaling 86 countries” who sent letters to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The Secretary General failed to even acknowledge receipt of these coalitions’ letters. The Organization for Islamic Cooperation, which represents 57 countries, was one of the opposing groups. C-Fam reports that the 54-member African Group also denounced the release of the stamps saying it reflects badly on the UN by “associating it with issues that do not enjoy universal consensus.” And the 24-member Group of Friends of the Family, including Belarus, Egypt, and Qatar, said the action by the UN promotes “a deeply controversial agenda.” That agenda, they said, “thwarts unity, dialogue, and mutual respect.”

There is no UN treaty promoting LGBT rights or protecting homosexual conduct. Not that there haven’t been tremendous efforts over the years to get one. U.S. representatives, unfortunately have been part of the effort to spread same-sex marriage to nations where prevailing religious belief opposes it and to pressure countries that maintain laws that punish sodomy to drop those laws.

Mr. Baradat, who serves as the United Nations Postal Administration art director, identifies as LGBT. In creating and designing these stamps he said he was striving for the “beautiful, elegant, and loving.” The unveiling of the stamps was accompanied by a program of pop songs and love tunes sung by the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus. All this is part of an attempt to promote rights to engage in sodomy, same-sex marriage, homosexual adoption, and transsexual behavior.

Not exactly the United Nations’ historical mandate.