A quote from the Friday Fax, 5 September 2008

Rama Yade, France’s Junior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights, this week announced that her country intends to submit a draft “declaration” calling for the global decriminalization of “homosexuality” at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in December. […] Ms. Yade cited France’s commitment to combat “homophobia” as part of a campaign to advance “universal” human rights. France holds the six-month European Union (EU) presidency through the end of the year, and thus will be able to speak on behalf of the 25 countries of the EU at the UN. […]

Ms. Yade appears to be the French government’s point woman in advancing this agenda.  Born in 1976 in Senegal and raised in Paris suburbs, she is a member of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s political party, the conservative Union pour un Movement Populaire, or UMP, and a protégé of the President.