USAID Funding Pro-Prostitution and LGBT Political Activists
By Stefano
Gennarini,
J.D.
NEW
YORK (C-Fam) President Obama is often berated for bungling foreign policy.
Outside the U.S., his prioritizing lesbian, gay bisexual and transsexual (LGBT)
rights has aggravated already sour relations – a trend that will increase as
the U.S. funds groups tied to prostitution, dubious transgender studies and
anti-religious bigotry.
It
would be of “enormous benefit” to individuals who lead LGBT lifestyles if
prostitution were legal according to a statement on the website of the Astraea
Lesbian Foundation for Justice—one of the USAID’s partners in the new LGBT
Global Development Partnership. Astrea says prostitution should be called “sex
work” and legalized.
According
to public records,
Astrea received over $1 million from USAID in 2013, and could receive nearly
another $3 million by 2016. Astrea
criticizes so called “exit-only” programs because they “force women to exit the
sex trade” and leave out the “most important voices—those of girls/women
involved in sex work or being trafficked.”
Organizations
funded by USAID are not limited to activities in developing countries.
USAID
has a contract with the Victory Institute, a non-partisan, nonprofit
educational organization that teaches politicians to run for office on LGBT
issues. It offers training and professional development programs for
politicians, advocates and businessmen. Houston Mayor Annise Parker, currently
embroiled in a scandal involving her subpoena of the sermons and preaching
materials of five pastors who oppose her recent LGBT rights ordinance, is one
of the beneficiaries of the Victory Institute’s strategic guidance.
A
UCLA think tank that trains judges on LGBT issues is also a USAID partner. A
study it commissioned concluded child development in households with a
transgender parent is the same as in any family.
Olivia,
a travel agency and tour operator for lesbians, is another eclectic group
chosen by USAID. It describes itself as “THE Travel company for lesbians!”
(emphasis original) and boasts having taken 200,000 women on an Olivia vacation
“surrounded by women of all ages and ethnicities from all over the world.”
These
are a few of USAID’s “champions and allies” according to the new “USAID
Vision for Action” which lays out the progress of USAID in
implementing Obama’s order. The order outlines funding for LGBT issues and
special attention for LGBT persons throughout all federal international
programs. For instance, since 2012 USAID contractors have to navigate new
non-discrimination provisions in order to partner with USAID.
Other
countries perceive this as a threat to children and challenge to their laws,
cultures and traditions.
Last
week, African countries chided the UN human rights bureaucracy and donor
countries for promoting special rights for individuals who identify as LGBT.
Egypt warned the new High Commissioner for Human Rights that “we cannot have
imposed agendas.” Malawi, representing 57 African countries, called for
“restraint” and said efforts to impose new norms “undermine” the human rights
system.
Secretary
of State John Kerry conceded while speaking at the UN last month that LGBT
issues have become more contentious, and laws opposed by LGBT activists “are
metastizing,”
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