Defending and spreading woke culture has become a recurring theme throughout the Biden administration, so much so that the order given to diplomats to defend and encourage it is even causing problems with other governments. It is also costing taxpayers a pretty penny. The current administration has spent an estimated $5 million on LGBT programs alone with virtually no transparency.
In February, at the beginning of his term, Biden, through a national security memorandum, directed all federal agencies with foreign relations to not only defend the LGBT people against discrimination and violence but to also actively promote them. The State Department, led by Antony Blinken, has made one of its main objectives "to embed intersectional equity principles into diversifying public diplomacy and communication strategies" with other countries.
Funding LGBT shows and groups around the world
This has resulted in U.S. ambassadors around the world becoming global champions of the LGBT movement. To do this, they are funding drag queen shows, subsidizing LGBT entities and holding seminars on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). This is even happening in countries that are fighting woke culture.
It's difficult to calculate just how much money the current administration has invested in its international woke agenda. The State Department did not provide a list of woke initiatives or the cost of such programs. However, several recent reports indicate that at least $5 million has been allocated to LGBT programs abroad.
What we do know is that a $10,000 grant was given to a Portuguese LGBT activist group to organize a film festival featuring performances of drag, incest and pedophilia. The Biden administration also allocated $20,000 to support a series of drag shows in Ecuador. A $300,000 payment was sent to Botswana to "'promote greater social acceptance of LGBTQI+ people, including among influential religious groups and traditional groups' that preach or teach that homosexuality is immoral: Roman Catholics, most evangelical Christians, Muslims and Orthodox Jews," according to Real Clear Politics. Republican scrutiny pressured the State Department to cancel drag shows it had been hosting on U.S. military bases.
Diplomatic conflicts over the woke movement
This policy is not helping the United States' image abroad, especially in countries with a conservative or Muslim majority. For example, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kuwait issued a statement claiming "the need for the embassy to respect the laws and regulations in force in the State of Kuwait," where same-sex sexual activity is illegal. The statement was issued after the embassy's diplomat promoted Pride Month on official social media accounts.
The Hungarian government also warned their US ambassador, David Pressman, who is openly gay and has spoken out on various occasions against Viktor Orban's government – to be careful to not cross the line. The Hungarian foreign minister went so far as to say: "if he wants to use his time in Hungary to criticize the actions of a government that was elected by a fairly clear majority of the Hungarian people and has the authority of the Hungarian people, he will have a very difficult time working effectively to improve cooperation between the two countries.”
The ambassadors to Poland and South Korea also upset local governments by participating in Pride parties and rallies, even though same-sex unions are illegal in these countries. The US Embassy also generated quite a stir when it hung the Pride flag from its headquarters in Rome.
Conservative senators block appointments of new ambassadors
This situation has led several U.S. senators, including J.D. Vance, to delay or even block new ambassadors from being appointed in an attempt to prevent spreading the woke ideology abroad. Vance criticized what he called the "injection" of "personal politics" into the U.S. foreign service, claiming:
You can call it ‘extreme left,’ ‘woke.’ To me it’s leaning toward cultural progressivism in a way that alienates half of our country and, frankly, it probably alienates about 80 percent of the countries these guys are going to represent us in front of.
