Trump’s aid freeze disrupted LGBTQ activism abroad

Hours after his second inauguration, President Donald Trump signed an order freezing nearly all U.S. foreign assistance, and a Daily Caller report says the cuts disrupted overseas LGBTQ advocacy¹.

Where taxpayer aid went

The Daily Caller reported that U.S. funding supported LGBTQ organizations and activism abroad before the Trump administration’s cuts¹.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast said USAID spending included $15 million for condoms to the Taliban and $3,315,446 for “being LGBTQ in the Caribbean,” figures that put the aid-priority debate in concrete terms for taxpayers¹. Mast also said the State Department spent $20,600 on a drag show in Ecuador, $47,020 for a transgender opera in Colombia and $32,000 for an LGBTQ-centered comic book in Peru.

What the cuts changed

Secretary of State Marco Rubio later exempted “lifesaving humanitarian assistance” from the freeze but said “transgender surgeries” did not qualify as lifesaving work¹.

The Daily Caller reported that grants supported Hungary’s Háttér Society in training activists to respond to “anti-gender discourse.”¹

The report also described Diversidad Dominicana’s work preparing LGBTQ candidates for elected office, calling it a “pipeline for queer political participation.”¹

Vice President JD Vance said the Biden administration had sought to “export abortion and radical gender ideology all around the world” using taxpayer money¹.

Survey reports funding losses

Outright International’s report surveyed 229 organizations across 94 countries¹. Ninety percent said they had lost U.S. taxpayer funding since January 2025¹.

What happens to the funding?

Outright’s report is titled “Breaking Point: The Urgent Need to Invest in Global LGBTQ Movements.” Whether private donors replace lost federal funding is a question to watch¹.

Sources

1. How Trump Ended The Left’s Globalist LGBTQ Agenda |