Officials with the U.S. State Department attempted to defend themselves this past Sunday in the wake of issuing a massive grant of over $20,000 to Ecuador for a cultural center to promote and host drag shows in the South American country for the area LGBTQ communities.
This past week, it was reported by Fox News that the State Department started to promote various “diversity and inclusion efforts” funded by taxpayer dollars for the setting up of drag shows in South America. These same efforts utilized a $20,600 grant issued to the non-profit Centro Ecuatoriano Norteamericano (CEN). This particular center could utilize the funds to carry out three workshops, 12 drag theater performances until Aug. 31, 2023, and a two-minute documentary.
In comments made to reinforce their choices, a spokesperson for the State Department expressed to Fox News Digital, via a release, that the funds from the grant enable programs in Ecuador to incorporate and conceptualize “diversity, inclusion, and representation to equity and accessibility.” Out of the large number of programs funded by American tax dollars, one of them aims to utilize the arts to bring more awareness regarding diversity and inclusivity, which sets up an outlet for LGBTQ “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,” expressed the spokesperson. “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 stated that artists and facilitators out in Cuenca would work with a local theater company to set up workshops and plays, which would end up being video documented.
“LGBTQI+ people across the globe deserve to live in societies free from targeted violence and discrimination,” expressed the spokesperson. “Recent data suggest an alarming and deadly rise in violence against LGBTQI+ persons in Ecuador.”
A report out of Ecuador regarding human rights in 2021 that was published by the State Department expressed, “Members of society engaged in crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons.”
Officials from the State Department stated some examples of threats and violence against the members of the community included extreme social stigma regarding AIDS and HIV, students being forced to deal with school bullying, and hate crimes.
The spokesperson expressed that the program would further “key U.S. values of diversity and the inclusion of LGBTQI+ communities” all while promoting the “acceptance of communities that are disproportionately affected by violence.”
