Biden admin funding theatrical productions to teach Africans about LGBTQ rights

The Biden administration is spending taxpayer dollars to stage plays in an effort to teach Africans about “LGBTQ rights.”

A State Department grant allocates money to “improve communication at the level of the local community on the social issue of LGBTQ rights and domestic violence via participatory theater” in the African nation of Chad, according to a federal grant description. The Biden administration has paid out several grants to use theater to educate foreigners about environmentalism, racism, immigration, and the war in Ukraine.

The grant was offered under the Africa Regional Democracy Fund, a State Department program intended to support the “advancement of civil and political rights, freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly and access to information” in African nations. The State Department approved an estimated $26 million in grants under this program during the 2023 fiscal year, according to a government spending database.

“The U.S. Department of State supports a wide range of strategic programs to advance U.S. interests abroad,” a State Department spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Culture—from music to sports to theater—is a vital component of the United States’ people-to-people diplomacy efforts in Chad and around the world and supports broader U.S. foreign policy goals,” they continued.

The U.S. Embassy in Chad released a solicitation for grant applications under this program in March 2022, stating that its spending would help strengthen “democratic institutions in sub-Saharan Africa.”

Teaching people in Chad about LGBTQ rights and domestic violence through theater will cost American taxpayers $120,000, according to a federal grant listing. The grant was approved in October 2023 and will carry on through September 2024.

Homosexuality is criminalized in Chad, though there is only limited evidence that the laws are enforced, according to Human Dignity Trust.

Laws and attitudes in Africa tend to be more hostile toward homosexuality than they are in the West. More than half of the nations in Africa, for instance, criminalize homosexuality, according to Reuters.

Interactive theater group aims to reduce #HIV stigma in #Vietnam: http://go.usa.gov/1Dl #WAD2010 @USPEPFAR

— Department of State (@StateDept) December 1, 2010

Biden’s State Department has made liberal use of theater in pursuing its goals abroad. The State Department under Biden has paid to use theater and dance to engage youth in North Macedonia about environmental issues, to raise awareness about immigration issues and Ukraine in France, to teach people in Belgium about “fighting racism and discrimination through theater” and to educate Bosnians about “tolerance and intercultural cooperation,” federal grant listings show.

The department funded an “eco-theater” production in Austria that touched on issues related to the climate, according to a federal grant listing.

The State Department spent millions during prior administrations as well as funding theater productions abroad, spending records show. Theater-related programs funded by the State Department under former President Donald Trump included a “queer community theater” in Mongolia, a play to help address domestic abuse in Suriname, and a bilingual theater program to help bridge the divide between Arab and Jewish children in Israel.

Biden’s State Department has also supported other forms of performance art abroad, including funding 31 different programs across 23 countries using hip-hop to assist climate activism and promote diversity, among other things.

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