As Trump blocks funds for LGBTQ rights abroad, fear and confusion spread
Under a cloud of uncertainty, Biden era of support for LGBTQ communities ends.
Fear and confusion reign among people whose work protecting and empowering LGBTQ+ people abroad has been boosted by U.S. foreign aid — until it was cut off as soon as Donald Trump took power.
Obstacles and bafflement began on Jan. 20 and have spread since then. On Jan. 20, newly installed President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day suspension of all U.S. foreign aid programs pending reviews to determine whether they are aligned with Trump’s policy goals.
Almost immediately, the newly arrived leaders of the nation’s foreign aid agency, USAID, imposed a communications blackout, allowing no one except officials at the highest level to discuss with outsiders the implications of the freeze. They fired staff and removed USAID web pages describing agency programs.
“Fear and loathing prevails across global development as agencies try to untangle what’s going on and what it means for them,” the Devex news service reported. “With funding in limbo, navigating the U.S. foreign aid freeze is critical for survival” of development agencies, it said.
USAID had been an important booster of international LGBTQ rights under the Biden administration.
The cutoff of foreign aid would have forced a shutdown of Pepfar, founded in 20o3 by President George W. Bush, which provides anti-HIV medications for more than 20 million people worldwide, including more than 500,000 children with HIV. When that prospect was publicized, Trump officials backed off, announcing that waivers would be approved for “life-saving humanitarian assistance.”
Pepfar patients’ HIV treatments presumably will be covered by a waiver, but no ruling has been announced about HIV prevention efforts, including anti-retroviral drugs.
Trump claims that U.S. foreign aid programs, like domestic programs, are plagued by “tremendous waste and fraud and abuse.”
One point of contention is distribution of condoms as part of the battle against AIDS. The agency has said it delivered about $7 million worth of male condoms and about $1 million in female condoms in the 2023 fiscal year — a total of 138 million men’s condoms and 1.7 million female condoms worldwide. Most of them were delivered to African countries, a USAID report said.
But on Wednesday Trump claimed, “We identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas. Fifty million. And you know what’s happened to them? They’ve used them as a method of making bombs.”
Dozens of USAID senior staff on leave
“The Trump administration placed nearly 60 senior officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAid) on leave on [Jan. 27}, on suspicion they had been helping humanitarian organizations cope with the freeze,” VOA reported.
In addition, the work of hundreds of USAID contractors was canceled or paused, CBS News reported.
Departing USAID staff included attorneys in the Office of the General Counsel, who are responsible for interpreting Trump’s executive orders for implementation, CBS said.
“One source told CBS News the individuals affected were told to “go home and not communicate with anyone” at USAID. Two sources told CBS News that some of the individuals in question were physically escorted out of the building.”
450-500 global health jobs on the line
“Between 450 and 500 people who are contractors in USAID’s global health bureau are waiting to find out if they’ll be out of a paycheck for 90 days, as the pause on foreign assistance includes them, said one person familiar with the situation, who was granted anonymity to speak without fear of reprisal. Their leadership is expected to request a waiver for them,” Politico said.
Up to 5,000 job cuts in refugee assistance programs?
In addition, thousands of employees could lose their jobs over at the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration, Devex said..
Devex reported: “IOM, the United Nations’ principal migration agency, has ordered an immediate freeze to its U.S. resettlement program and is preparing the groundwork for thousands — possibly up to 5,000 — job cuts following the Trump administration’s sweeping pause on U.S. foreign assistance, according to humanitarian sources.
“However, that figure is a worst-case scenario and the cuts could be smaller, particularly if the Trump administration moves ahead with restoring some funding.”
How USAID formerly supported LGBTQI+ communities abroad
During the Biden years, USAID was active in supporting LGBTQ rights internationally, as illustrated in the following USAID article from 2021 that describes programs such as those that are now in jeopardy. Because this article was published on Medium.com, these descriptions from 2021 remain accessible — out of reach of the new leaders at USAID who are shutting down the agency’s web pages.
5 Ways USAID Promotes LGBTQI+ Inclusion Around the World
Around the world, brave, strategic, and resilient LGBTQI+ leaders and civil society organizations (CSOs) are building community, creating coalitions, and engaging governments in innovative ways.
Their goal is to advance the rights of all people across the diverse spectrum of sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and sex characteristics so that everyone can live with dignity and freedom from fear.
The realities facing LGBTQI+ people are daunting: violence, discrimination, stigma, and criminalization impact the lives of millions of LGBTQI+ people worldwide, contributing to poverty and social instability. LGBTQI+ people face criminalization in almost 70 countries and territories, 11 of which can impose the death penalty.
Furthermore, they are often excluded from social benefits systems, lack legal recognition of their gender identity and relationships, and may face rejection by families and other social networks. Their rights and access to essential services such as education, employment, and health care are limited, and discrimination prevents their meaningful inclusion in broader development efforts.
USAID is proud to highlight five projects that work to address these realities and create a more equitable and inclusive world for LGBTQI+ people.
1. Including Gender Diverse People in the National Census in Bangladesh
In 2014, the Bangladesh cabinet recognized “hijra” as a third gender. Through the Rights for Gender Diverse Populations program, USAID supports CSOs to build from this to help LGBTQI+ people better understand their rights. This includes training human rights defenders to document, monitor, and respond to human rights violations; partnering with 15 local radio stations to raise awareness about gender diversity among more than one million listeners; and establishing contacts to offer medical advice related to COVID-19.
The program also strengthened nine CSOs across Bangladesh and convened stakeholders, including human rights activists, journalists, medical professionals, and religious leaders. Through these efforts, the National Human Rights Commission agreed to include a third gender option in Bangladesh’s 2021 National Census for the first time. Civil society participants in the Rights for Gender Diverse Populations also submitted a draft Transgender Law to the National Human Rights Commission to increase protections and other rights for gender diverse people.
2. Transgender Empowerment and Quality Health Care in South Africa
USAID/Southern Africa Regional Mission advocates for comprehensive healthcare services for all, including gender affirming healthcare for transgender people. In partnership with the South African Government, USAID-supported programs are able to provide safe spaces that offer a range of services for transgender individuals, including HIV prevention, care, and treatment; access to hormone replacement therapy drugs from the local government; and other health and psychosocial support services.
In three provinces in South Africa, the U.S. President’s Emergency Response for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) works with a local partner to support Trans Women Health Care clinics. USAID, with the U.S. Consulate General in Cape Town and Western Cape Department of Health, launched the clinics in December 2019. Each year, the program supports HIV prevention services for more than 4,000 transgender people and maintains support for almost 1,000 people on lifesaving HIV treatment, as well as almost 400 on hormone replacement therapy.
3. Reducing Transgender Discrimination and Advocating for Legal Gender Recognition in Kosovo
Providing legal gender recognition by revising sex markers on official documents is an important step in reducing discrimination that transgender people experience when accessing social services, applying for jobs, and in other aspects of their lives. Through the Engagement for Equity activity, USAID supported local advocacy efforts to draft a legal sub-provision to the Civil Status Law that will allow sex markers to be modified in public registers and government-issued documents. In December 2019, the Kosovo Court of Appeals ruled in favor of a Kosovo citizen wishing to change their sex marker in official documents.
4. Engaging Government Agencies in Guatemala to Reduce Anti-LGBTQI+ Stigma
Through the Electoral Governance and Reforms Project, USAID supported meetings with the National Congress of Guatemala, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, and CSOs. The goal: to identify priorities and provide technical assistance on legal reforms to recognize gender identity, increase LGBTQI+ political participation, and address hate crimes against LGBTQI+ individuals.
Since February 2021, USAID has trained more than 250 government officers from Guatemala’s Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman and governmental officers from different public services, such as the Public Ministry (Attorney General) and the Ministry of the Interior, in reducing stigma and discrimination against the LGBTQI+ community.
5. Strengthening LGBTQI+ Organizations in the Middle East and North Africa
LGBTQI+ organizations face a myriad of security challenges due to legal context, political unrest, public opinion, religious perspectives, health crises, and economic crises. To address these issues, USAID supported CSOs to create a toolkit to enhance security protections for organizations working with key populations — including gay men and other men who have sex with men, people who use drugs, sex workers, and transgender people — on HIV programming. LGBTQI+ organizations from across the region have used the toolkit to assess their strengths and areas for growth, and to organize, plan, and strategize for resilient health programming and rights advocacy.
These snapshots show the power of community-led organizations and LGBTQI+ leaders to develop and implement solutions to improve their challenging realities.
USAID is honored to support these initiatives and will continue to work to ensure the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons are respected and advanced in our work.
