USAID releases its first-ever “LGBTQI+-inclusive” plan for foreign aid

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the independent federal agency responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance, has released its first-ever “LGBTQI+-inclusive” policy since its founding in 1961.

The four-point policy is meant to serve as a blueprint for USAID staff and partners around the world to champion LGBTQ+ and intersex development and the human rights of all queer people through the agency’s work, said Jay Gilliam, USAID’s senior LGBTQI+ coordinator, in a video explaining the policy.

Related Stories Joe Biden condemns GOP’s “callous” attacks on LGBTQ+ Americans

“It matters a great deal how we treat everyone in this country,” Biden said.

The use of the word “inclusive,” Gilliam explained, means that “every individual and community, of all diverse identities and experiences, is instrumental in the transformation of their own societies.”

Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you.

The policy states that USAID’s “global development diplomacy” will “drive progress on LGBTQI+ inclusive development both within and beyond the agency’s programming” using “evidence-based,” data-driven, and locally-led programs and approaches that both “strengthen” LGBTQI+ persons and communities” and respond to “crises that impact” them.

In simpler terms, the U.S. will try to improve diplomatic relationships with other countries by investing in locally-led LGBTQ+-inclusive programs that are shown to positively impact communities in need.

The policies will help USAID assist local LGBTQI+ organizations and communities to address violence, discrimination, and stigma happening in their own countries; to participate fully in civil and democratic processes; and to have equal access to programs that help LGBTQI+ individuals, including education, health, and mental health services, USAID explained in its video.

In the video, Joy Chia — executive director of the Astrea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, a group that has worked with USAID over the last decade — said, “We believe that this intentional localization process will support movements and activists not only to survive but to thrive.”

USAID’s new policy differs from the international policies that the U.S. State Department pushed under former President Donald Trump. The department under Trump said it would no longer encourage African nations to repeal their anti-LGBTQ+ laws because doing so is a type of “religious persecution” that would “discourage Christian values in other democratic countries.”

One of USAID’s best-known programs is U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a hugely successful HIV prevention initiative in Africa. The program has been in Republican crosshairs recently. Former President Donald Trump sought to slash $300 million from its budget, and House Republicans want to end PEPFAR because they dishonestly claim that its funds go to support abortion.