State Dept. Doubles Down On Spending $20K Of Taxpayer Money To Fund Drag Shows In Ecuador | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Brandon Drey.

    U.S. State Department officials defended themselves Sunday after awarding Ecuador a grant of over $20,000 for a cultural center to host drag shows for LGBTQ communities in the South American country.

    Earlier this week, Fox News reported the State Department began promoting "diversity and inclusion efforts" using taxpayer dollars to fund "drag shows in South America. Such efforts included a $20,600 grant to the non-profit Centro Ecuatoriano Norteamericano (CEN). The center would use the money on three workshops, a two-minute documentary, and 12 drag theater performances until Aug. 31, 2023.

    Doubling down on their stance, a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement that the grant funds programs in Ecuador to incorporate and conceptualize "diversity, inclusion, and representation to equity and accessibility." Of the number of programs sponsored by American tax dollars, one aims to use the arts to raise awareness about diversity and inclusivity, which gives LGBTQ people an outlet "to express themselves freely and safely."

    "In September 2022, the U.S. Department of State awarded a grant to the Centro Cultural Ecuatoriano Norteamericano Abraham Lincoln, a U.S.-Ecuadorian cultural center in Cuenca, Ecuador, for a program that uses the arts to raise awareness about diversity and inclusion," the spokesperson said. "The program's goal is to promote tolerance, and the arts provide new opportunities for LGBTQI+ Ecuadorians to express themselves freely and safely."

    The spokesperson said that facilitators and artists in Cuenca would collaborate with a local theater company to create workshops and plays, which would be video documented.

    "LGBTQI+ people across the globe deserve to live in societies free from targeted violence and discrimination," the spokesperson said. "Recent data suggest an alarming and deadly rise in violence against LGBTQI+ persons in Ecuador."

    A 2021 human rights in Ecuador report published by the State Department said, "Members of society engaged in crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons."

    State Dept. officials said some examples of violence and threats against community members included social stigma on HIV and AIDS, hate crimes, and students susceptible to school bullying.

    The spokesperson said the program would advance "key U.S. values of diversity and the inclusion of LGBTQI+ communities" and promote the "acceptance of communities that are disproportionately affected by violence."

    Fox News reports the State Department has granted CEN hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years, but the new grant appears to be the first time funding has been explicitly given for drag shows.

    Former television producer Lara Trump told Fox New's Emily Compagno during her show "Outnumbered" that sending taxpayer money to a foreign country for such causes is an example of why Americans feel upset when they see their money "squandered and used for things that we don't understand."

    "We are sending American taxpayer dollars to another country to support drag performances," Trump said. "This is our money. Why aren't we spending it here?"

poll#164

It has been far too many years since the Woke theology interlaced its canons within the fabric of the Indoctrination Realm, so it is nigh time to ask: Does this Representative Republic continue, as a functioning society of a self-governed people, by contending with the unusual, self absorbed dictates of the Woke, and their vast array of Victimhood scenarios?

  Yes, the Religion of Woke must continue; there are so many groups of underprivileged, underserved, a direct result of unrelenting Inequity; they deserve everything.

  No; the Woke fools must be toppled from their self-anointed pedestal; a functioning society of a good Constitutional people cannot withstand this level of "existential" favoritism as it exists now.

  I just observe; with this thoughtful observation: What will happen "when the Vikings are breeching our walls;" how do the Woke react?

845 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?

poll#166

With the Midterm Elections less than one week away: What do you consider the top issues that you will be voting on to be corrected by your better representation?

  Education

  Crime

  Big Government getting Bigger

  Biden /Democrat controlled Spike in Energy Cost

  Inflation created by Legislation of Majority in Power

  Gender Reassignment

  Corrupted Bureaucratic /Service (DOJ, FBI, etc.) Institutions

  Abortion

  Discredited Legacy Media

  Ending the Corruption of Dishonest Politicians

  Corruptive Influence of Social Media

  Wide Open Southern Border

439 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?