As President Joe Biden enters his final months in the White House, his State Department has disbursed a glut of grants aimed at advancing LGBT rights in countries ranging from Fiji to Albania.
In recent months, the State Department has approved funding for LGBT programs in an array of different countries, costing the public thousands in the process, government spending records show. Recent initiatives backed by public dollars include pride parades, efforts to inject academic queer theory into foreign societies and gay film festivals.
Spokespeople for the State Department have previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation that promoting LGBT inclusion in foreign countries is a “foreign policy priority” of the United States under the Biden-Harris administration and that the flood of publicly-funded programs aimed at globalizing LGBT activism “advance efforts to fully protect the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons as well as promote the acceptance of communities that disproportionately face discrimination, violence and stigmatization.”
Part of this effort includes a State Department program that began on Sunday to “foster a united and equal queer-feminist discourse in Albanian society,” federal spending records show. Albanians must “recognize the underrepresentation of LGBTQ+ voices” in order to “bridge the queer and feminist [movements],” according to the State Department.
The State Department also put aside $15,000 in June to pay for the 2024 PRIDE Games in Fiji, according to grant records.
The athletic event, described as an “inclusive space for LGBTQ+ athletes to compete,” included rugby, netball and volleyball, according to the Fiji Times. The State Department’s grant helped pay for venues, sporting equipment, operational costs and promoting the game.
The Federal government’s recent push to embed LGBT acceptance in foreign countries is rooted in a 2021 memorandum issued by Biden that directed the heads of departments and agencies “to advance the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons,” according to the State Department.
“Around the globe, including here at home, brave lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) activists are fighting for equal protection under the law, freedom from violence, and recognition of their fundamental human rights,” Biden’s memorandum reads. “The United States belongs at the forefront of this struggle — speaking out and standing strong for our most dearly held values.”
Among the events intended to reflect America’s “deeply held values” was an LGBTIQ+ film festival in Bulgaria that the State Department approved funding for in March, according to grant records. The department funded another film festival in Portugal in 2021 that featured incest, drag queens and pedophilic themes.
“Americans are far from agreeing on how to deal with race, sex, and ‘gender’ in schools and workplaces,” Heritage Foundation senior research fellow Simon Hankinson wrote in a 2022 report. “Even when U.S. national consensus is there, restraint is always necessary in attempting to convince other nations that one’s own values should be theirs. The U.S. must balance the likelihood of convincing potential allies with the likelihood of hostile reactions to perceived interference or ‘cultural colonialism.’”
“Yet, the State Department often puts a contested social agenda at the forefront of its diplomatic outreach overseas, to the confusion, consternation, or even derision of U.S. allies as well as enemies,” he continued.
In the past few months, the State Department has directed public funds to hold pride celebrations in Estonia, the United Kingdom, Colombia, Czechia and Rwanda as well as to make a “queer culture festival” in South Korea accessible for deaf people, federal grant records show.
Other global LGBT programs bankrolled by the State Department have included supporting queer Muslim writers in India, funding dance programs to “uplift” transgender youth in Peru and utilizing public funds in an effort to use theater to teach Africans about LGBTQ rights.
“The Department remains committed to advancing and defending LGBTQI+ rights,” a State Department spokesperson told the DCNF. “We have said many times, LGBTQI rights are human rights and we call on countries to respect the rights of the LGBTQI + persons around the world.”
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