There is a a lot of coverage today about a resolution voted on last week by the United Nation Human Rights Council, most of it is intentionally misleading. No, not just misleading…utterly false and agenda driven. Many outlets are running headlines which imply that the Trump administration is in favor of some countries using the death penalty for having same sex relations.

The resolution before the Human Rights Council was a resolution regarding the death penalty in general. One item in the resolution specified the practice in some islamic countries of executing homosexuals. (This sort of atrocity for some odd reason only seems to raise leftists’ eyebrows when they can spin it as something Republicans need to answer for.)

Obviously, the United States can hardly vote in favor of a moratorium on the death penalty given that many states and the federal government use capital punishment. The U.N. Ambassador does not have the authority to bind anyone to halting the practice so even a yes vote would be completely impotent.

Still, headline after headline is telling gay Americans that their country favors executing them.

Our friends at ThinkProgress published this one:

United States rejects UN resolution condemning use of death penalty to target LGBTQ people

So far, no explanation has been given.

No explanation would be necessary if you were honestly covering the story, but you do you, TP.

Here’s the headline from Paste Magazine.

The U.N. Floated a Resolution Condemning the Death Penalty for LGBT People. The U.S. Voted “No.”

Maybe they need to stop eating the paste.

The best part of the Paste coverage was this bit (emphasis added):

On Sept. 29, the U.N. Human Rights Council put up a fairly uncontroversial resolution—by western standards, anyway—for a vote. The idea was to condemn those countries which instituted a death penalty for certain acts like “same-sex relations.” Here’s the text of the relevant portions:

The resolution specifically condemns “the imposition of the death penalty as a sanction for specific forms of conduct, such as apostasy, blasphemy, adultery and consensual same-sex relations” and expresses “serious concern that the application of the death penalty for adultery is disproportionately imposed on women.” It also notes “poor and economically vulnerable persons and foreign nationals are disproportionately subjected to the death penalty, that laws carrying the death penalty are used against persons exercising their rights to freedom of expression, thought, conscience, religion, and peaceful assembly and association, and that persons belonging to religious or ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented among those sentenced to the death penalty.”

One, that really wasn’t the idea. Two, that is one paragraph out of four pages of text about the death penalty in general. It may be the portion which best supports their intentionally distorted coverage, but it is by no means a comprehensive summary of the resolution’s purpose.

Then there’s the Independent.

US votes against UN resolution condemning gay sex death penalty, joining Iraq and Saudi Arabia

America one of 13 countries on Human Rights Council to oppose historic vote

America is literally the same as Iraq and Saudi Arabia, you guys. Run and hide before Mike Pence throws you off the roof of the White House. The vote is historic in the sense that it took place during a point in history, but it isn’t particularly ground breaking. According Buzzfeed (one of the few outlets who covered the story objectively), in 2014 the Obama administration abstained from voting on a similar resolution.

“International law does not prohibit capital punishment when imposed and carried out in a manner that is consistent with a state’s international obligations,” Ambassador Keith Harper said at the time. We therefore urge all governments that employ the death penalty to do so in conformity with their international human rights obligations.”

That 2014 version didn’t include the paragraph specifically referring to same sex behavior but it was no secret that certain extremist governments and theocracies were executing people for being gay.

Gay targeted publications obviously joined in, like Logo:

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

We were joined by Iraq, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

I guess it’s ok to use countries who execute homosexuals as a tool for throwing shade on the U.S. just as long as you don’t suggest that people from those countries should get extra scrutiny before being allowed to enter the U.S. That crosses the line.

The Los Angeles Blade also chimed in with this headline and lede.

U.S. opposes UN resolution against death penalty for same-sex relations

The U.S. on Sept. 29 voted against a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution that condemns the death penalty for those found guilty of committing consensual same-sex sexual acts.

There are many more out there. A lot of the usual left wing reactionary suspects on Twitter helped spread the propaganda as well.

The U.S. voted against a U.N. resolution condemning the death penalty for LGBT people. https://t.co/sFidLYTeRQ

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 3, 2017

(That one is ironic given that Griffin links to a story explaining why the vote wasn’t all about LGBT people. )

Taking another step toward darkness…US joins Saudi’s 2 vote against UN res opposing death for 'same-sex relations' https://t.co/68ZxlGjyhO

— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) October 3, 2017

https://twitter.com/JillFilipovic/status/915301003548913664

US joins Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, China & Egypt in voting NO on UN resolution opposing death penalty for LGBTs https://t.co/oeJRY8nxtW

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 3, 2017

The US rejected a UN resolution condemning executions of LGBT community simply because of who they love. Be outraged https://t.co/lSI2gzLGzB

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) October 3, 2017

The State Department issued a clarification on the vote, but don’t expect it to change the minds of those who only see what they want to see.

FactCheck: Reports on @UN HumanRightsCouncil vote WRONG. US condemns death penalty based on sex orientation, blasphemy, apostasy @StateDept

— Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) October 3, 2017

Rational debate and discussion is now virtually impossible thanks to agenda driven media and people who believe it without healthy skepticism. Ironically, nonsense like this which is now being aimed at the Trump administration is partly the reason why we got saddled with Trump in the first place. One can only imagine where we’ll go from here.