The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Sub-Working Group for the Memorandum on Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Persons Around the World announced that it exploring programs that benefit LGBTQ people.
“The USDA Working Group is exploring additional long-term projects to further promote the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons around the world and coalition building of like-mind (sic) nations,” reads an October memo obtained by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project.
According to the memo, the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) incorporated “sexual orientation nondiscrimination protections into FAS terms and conditions (T&Cs) for grants and agreements and notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs) to international beneficiaries.”
FAS will investigate “if there is a need for additional sexual orientation nondiscrimination training for those living, working or traveling abroad.”
Some of the goals of the memo were to “raise awareness of LGBTQI+ experiences, contributions, and professional and workplace issues” and “provide strategies and recommendations to help the USDA public profile and [ensure] the workplace as a welcoming, safe, and inclusive organization for all employees including LGBTQI+ employees.”
The memo serves as a response to Joe Biden’s 2021 Memorandum on Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Persons Around the World.
The memorandum “directs the USDA—an agency engaged in foreign aid and trade and export development—to consider the impact of programs funded by the Federal Government on human rights, including the rights of LGBTQI+ persons, when making funding decisions, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law,” the USDA memo says.
🧑🏾🌾🌈 Is the priority for farming in the third world really that the farmers are not gay, lesbian, or transgender enough?
— Oversight Project (@OversightPR) January 10, 2024
That’s the Biden Administration’s priority, and they condition YOUR money that they give away on it
We got the docs https://t.co/skjDq6Wy3V pic.twitter.com/ueisq6zetW
