President Joe Biden’s Department of State spent more than $20,000 on funding drag performances in Ecuador to promote “diversity and inclusion.”
The department awarded a $20,600 grant to Centro Ecuatoriano Norteamerico (CEN), a non-profit in Ecuador that has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the U.S. government dating back years, according to Fox News. The latest grant, awarded in September, is the first to be given for the purpose of putting on drag performances.
NEW: @FoxNews has learned the Biden admin is funding drag performances in Ecuador, with the State Department awarding more than $20,000 to an Ecuadorian cultural center to host “drag theater performances” in the name of “diversity and inclusion”. @FoxNews https://t.co/Jcclwz8JsY
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) October 19, 2022
CEN will produce three workshops, 12 drag shows, and a short documentary as part of the new project, which will run from Sep. 30 of this year until Aug. 31, 2023. The grant is part of State Department’s public diplomacy program, which aims to “support the achievement of U.S. foreign policy goals and objectives, advance national interests, and enhance national security by informing and influencing foreign publics and by expanding and strengthening the relationship between the people and government of the United States and citizens of the rest of the world,” according to the outlet. (RELATED: State Department Spokesman Ned Price: Giving Ukraine Billions Is ‘Foreign Policy For The Middle Class’)
CEN has received thousands in grants from the State Department every year since 2015, with a maximum amount of $234,000 awarded that year. Some other CEN projects funded by the U.S. taxpayer include laptops, Wi-Fi routers, and the purchase of “swag items.”