House Speaker Nabih Berri and his delegation to the 139th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly (IPU) in Geneva played an active role yesterday in rejecting a draft bill for respecting LGBTQI rights, according to the state-run National News Agency (NNA). Berri voted against a law on LGBTQI rights after meeting on Wednesday with the head of Africa’s Parliamentary Union who agreed with his stand on this matter, NNA reported. The meeting was preceded by two other meetings of the Islamic and Arab Parliamentary Unions who stressed their opposition to the bill, NNA said. The results of the votes came out as follows: 636 against, 499 in favor and 130 abstentions. European countries and a group of Latin American states spearheaded the advocates for LGBTQI rights. Hence, opponents, including many African countries, China and Russia, won, An Nahar newspaper wrote. (An Nahar, Al Diyar, Al Akhbar, October 19, 2018)