To the Editor:

The Beijing Women’s Conference has been the headline of news stories and controversy.

At the core of the conference is the U.N. document which has a very clear proclamation against families.

First, marriage is viewed as an evil towards the freedoms of women, men are oppressors and families are blamed for the foundation for violence against women and girls.

Second, there is a concept used in this document called “gender feminism.” This provides a basis for the conference and a whole new way of looking at human sexuality.

The fact that babies come into the world as male and female is just a fundamental necessity; the writers suggest that their sexual identity is forced upon them by society to play out those male/female roles.

The writers of the document would prefer that gender is seen (and taught) as a product of thought and culture, which creates the true self.

Therefore, they want to eliminate terms such as husband, wife, mother, father, brother, sister, masculine and feminine. They are to be replaced with parent, child, spouse, sibling, homosexual, lesbian and transgendered. After male/female is obliterated from vocabulary, everything related to sex must change also.

Households would split all responsibilities 50/50, businesses must fill quotas 50/50, military units would be equal in all ways, in all things, and no differences would be tolerated between the sexes.

Third, this conference will again promote the safe-sex ideology and reproductive rights in every nation of the world.

Unfortunately, coercion takes place; U.S. aid programs are dependent on the willingness of countries to adopt “population control” methods. This coercion is resented by those countries who view the United States as throwing their weight around.

Doctors already complain they can’t get clean water or medical supplies, but they have condoms by the millions whether people want them or not.

President Clinton has requested for the 1996 budget $635 million for population control abroad and $400 million at home.

This document is also hostile to religion. Those persons involved in “fundamental” movements are viewed as oppressing women or limiting their freedoms and aspirations. These groups are classified as Catholics, Evangelicals, Orthodox Christians, Orthodox Jews and Muslims.

It would seem the writers and the U.N. council, along with our government, pushes for an agenda that antagonizes a majority of people in the United States and the world. Join me in notifying Congress and the president that there is no support for this conference.

Dawn Cadwell

Ames resident