A pair of Florida Republicans want the Biden administration to explain whether the State Department is also utilizing men who dress up as women to promote its message.
The Defense Department is apparently not the only federal agency marketing itself with drag queens.
According to Florida Daily, GOP Reps. Brian Mast of Palm Bay and Maria Elvira Salazar of Miami have joined other Republican lawmakers in learning whether the State Department uses drag queens in Ecuador.
Lawmakers issued the letter in response to a nearly $21,000 grant to the Centro Cultural Ecuatoriano Norteamericano Abraham Lincoln, and if drag performances were used for youth groups, some with children as 8.
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The grant was canceled earlier this year, Florida Daily noted, but lawmakers seek more information about its origin.
“We are glad that congressional and media pushback may have played a role in the Department’s ultimate decision to cancel its grant.
To ensure that taxpayer dollars are not wasted in the future on similarly misguided and highly questionable programming, we are still interested in learning more about the internal processes that led to the grant being initially approved,” said the letter, spearheaded by Texas Republican Rep. Mike McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The letter noted that a conservation between lawmakers and the State Department did not include key decision-makers, thus it’s unclear about the “interactions between on-the-ground USG [U.S. government] personnel and the relevant theater group, Dionisios Arte-Cultura-Identidad.”
Moreover, they expressed disappointment that a previous inquiry from January 17 that sought documents and information on the State Department’s decision to provide the grant money has still not received an “adequate” response.
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They now seek all department communications referring or relating to the $20,600 grant to Centro Cultural Ecuatoriano Norteamericano Abraham Lincoln, and they ask that the department identify which individuals within the department specifically approved the grant.
They also want to know the agency’s “vetting procedures” or background checks regarding the performers as well as what diplomats gave to the Ecuadorian people as the “official reason” for canceling the funding.
In October, the U.S. State Department said it is important for American taxpayers to promote drag events in Ecuador because doing so brings “tolerance” and encourages Ecuadorians to “express themselves freely and safely.”
As the Tampa Free Press reported, the State Department gave a $20,600 grant to the Centro Ecuatoriano Norteamericano, a nonprofit organization in Ecuador, to organize and host drag events. U.S. diplomats said little about the grant at the time.
In September, an unidentified spokesperson told Newsmax, the State Department “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.”
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“The program’s goal is to promote tolerance, and the arts provide new opportunities for LGBTQI+ Ecuadorians to express themselves freely and safely.”
“Recent data suggest an alarming and deadly rise in violence against LGBTQI+ persons in Ecuador,” the spokesperson continued. “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.”
It’s unclear why the Ecuadorians can’t pay to promote their own drag shows.
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