In the latest example of woke ideology infecting foreign policy, the Biden administration will be funneling money to South American drag shows.
The U.S. State Department awarded nearly $21,000 to the Centro Cultural Ecuatoriano Norteamericano Abraham Lincoln to “promote diversity and inclusion” through the use of 12 “drag theater performances.” The $20,600 project grant began on Sept. 30 according to an entry in the State Department database.
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The money will “support the achievement of U.S. foreign policy goals and objectives, advance national interests, and enhance national security by informing and influencing foreign publics and by expanding and strengthening the relationship between the people and government of the United States and citizens of the rest of the world,” according to the objective’s description.
The State Department also said in an email that the funds will further “tolerance.”
“The program’s goal is to promote tolerance and … provide new opportunities for LGBTQI+ Ecuadorians to express themselves freely and safely,” the State Department said in an email to the Washington Examiner. The press team did not address a question about age minimums for participation in the program.
“Facilitators and artists in Cuenca will collaborate with a local theater company in implementing workshops, creating customized plays, and producing a documentary video; the program will conclude in June 2023,” the media team said. “LGBTQI+ people across the globe deserve to live in societies free from targeted violence and discrimination. Recent data suggest an alarming and deadly rise in violence against LGBTQI+ persons in Ecuador.”
“The program will advance key U.S. values of diversity and the inclusion of LGBTQI+ communities as well as promote the acceptance of communities that are disproportionately affected by violence,” the media team stated.
One leader of a conservative group focused on international issues criticized the initiative in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
Austin Ruse, the president of the Center for Family and Human Rights, called the drag shows “an inappropriate use of American taxpayer money” and said, “Such programs show the world the perverse nature” of current priorities for American foreign policy.
“A cursory look at the books would likely show this is far from the only program like this that we fund,” Ruse stated. “Joe Biden seems determined to export and impose the sexual revolution on the rest of the world.”
“Ask anyone on the ground in Ecuador or any other country that receives our aid and you will find they need basic things like clean water, safe sanitation, basic medical care, and not such things as drag shows,” he concluded.
While this is a commonsense idea, the Biden administration’s history shows it’s unlikely to prioritize reasonable foreign aid goals. Instead, we can expect more leftist ideology injected into domestic and foreign policy.
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Matt Lamb is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is an associate editor for the College Fix and has previously worked for Students for Life of America and Turning Point USA.
