The State Department provided funding for an India-based Queer Muslim group that enables them to write.
The $15,000 grant was given to Creating Resources for Empowerment and Action, which funds the Queer Muslim Project.
According to a description of the grant, “The Queer Muslim Project will provide a platform to a group of young LGBTQIA writers from underrepresented communities in South Asia to showcase their work at a leading Mumbai literature festival alongside writers from the Iowa Writing Program.”
The grant runs from September 25, 2023, to November 30, 2024.
World Net Daily reported that the U.S. Consulate General Mumbai previously partnered with the Queer Muslim Project.
“Hear the sound of pens and gentle laughter? A cohort of young LGBTQIA+ writers from South Asia is at work at The Queer Writers’ Room,” a Facebook post read, adding, “The Queer Writers’ Room is a 10-week creative writing and narrative change program supported by The Queer Muslim Project and U.S. Consulate General Mumbai, bringing in experts from the United States and South Asia and providing young writers with knowledge, skills, and opportunities to meet and connect in an affirming environment through a mix of creative workshops, craft lectures, author conversations, generative exercises, and mentoring opportunities.”
In 2022, President Joe Biden signed an executive order designed to “advance LGBTQI+ during pride month.”
The order includes funding for the Department of Education to create a new advocacy group that “issues guidance” on LGBTQI+ policies to “states, school districts, and other educational institutions.”
The order also addresses support the administration plans to offer to mentally disturbed members of the LGBTQI+ community and “charges HHS to help prevent LGBTQI+ suicide by expanding youth access to suicide prevention resources.”
