{"id":1708163,"date":"2022-10-23T19:32:57","date_gmt":"2022-10-23T23:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1708163"},"modified":"2022-10-23T19:33:14","modified_gmt":"2022-10-23T23:33:14","slug":"state-dept-doubles-down-on-spending-20k-of-taxpayer-money-to-fund-drag-shows-in-ecuador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/state-dept-doubles-down-on-spending-20k-of-taxpayer-money-to-fund-drag-shows-in-ecuador\/","title":{"rendered":"State Dept. Doubles Down On Spending $20K Of Taxpayer Money To Fund Drag Shows In Ecuador"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fstate-dept-doubles-down-on-spending-20k-of-taxpayer-money-to-fund-drag-shows-in-ecuador%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1708163&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/state-department\">U.S. State Department<\/a> 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Earlier this week, Fox News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/state-dept-defends-20k-grant-drag-shows-ecuador\">reported<\/a> the State Department began promoting \u201cdiversity and inclusion efforts\u201d using taxpayer dollars to fund \u201cdrag 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.<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">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 \u201cdiversity, inclusion, and representation to equity and accessibility.\u201d 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 \u201cto express themselves freely and safely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cIn 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,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cThe program\u2019s goal is to promote tolerance, and the arts provide new opportunities for LGBTQI+ Ecuadorians to express themselves freely and safely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">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.<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cLGBTQI+ people across the globe deserve to live in societies free from targeted violence and discrimination,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cRecent data suggest an alarming and deadly rise in violence against LGBTQI+ persons in Ecuador.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">A 2021 human rights in Ecuador\u00a0<a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/313615_ECUADOR-2021-HUMAN-RIGHTS-REPORT.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">report<\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> published by the State Department said, \u201cMembers <span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">of society engaged in crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting <span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">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.<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The spokesperson said the program would advance \u201ckey U.S. values of diversity and the inclusion of LGBTQI+ communities\u201d and promote the \u201cacceptance of communities that are disproportionately affected by violence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Former television producer Lara Trump told Fox New\u2019s Emily Compagno during her show \u201cOutnumbered\u201d that sending taxpayer money to a foreign country for such causes is an example of why Americans feel upset when they see their money \u201csquandered and used for things that we don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cWe are sending American taxpayer dollars to another country to support drag performances,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThis is our money. <span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Why aren\u2019t we spending it here?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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.\u00a0 Earlier this week, Fox News reported the State Department began promoting \u201cdiversity and inclusion efforts\u201d using taxpayer dollars to fund \u201cdrag shows in South &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1708166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1708163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1708163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1708163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1708163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1708166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1708163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1708163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1708163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}