$40,000 cut to ‘gender identity seminars’ in Scotland
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has withdrawn over half a million dollars previously allocated to Stonewall, an LGBT advocacy organization in the U.K. Another $40,000 assigned to “gender identity seminars” in Scotland has also been pulled, according to reports.
Stonewall, which received more than £500,000 (roughly $629,000) over the past three years from the U.S. government’s Global Equality Fund, now faces substantial financial strain. The Times of London reported that the organization might lay off up to half its staff as its largest international funding source has been removed.
Stonewall’s chief executive, Simon Blake, told employees in a digital meeting that restructuring was necessary and that only positions with dedicated funding would be secure.
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Stonewall’s operations in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, where it has offered assistance to local LGBT entities and worked with law enforcement, depended on money from U.S. taxpayers.
The GEF backs global projects addressing concerns of LGBT-identified individuals, though its accounts have not been publicly released since 2015. Stonewall’s annual reports indicated a steady rise in GEF funding: $173,000 in 2021-22, $257,200 in 2022-23, and $294,000 in the most recent accounts.
Blake, who previously described these U.S. grants as essential for tackling “anti-LGBTQ+ violence,” signaled that the group was “working hard with partners” to limit the impact of the U.S. cuts.
Stonewall’s financial statements show that its deficit more than doubled, from $550,000 to $1.1 million, in the last fiscal year. Further, falling participation in its Diversity Champions workplace program and the recent departure of major U.K. government departments from the scheme have also challenged the charity’s finances.
Although Stonewall raised more revenue through individual donations and events, the loss of U.S. funding was characterized by Blake as one more strain on the organization’s core programs.
Beyond Stonewall, a $40,000 allocation to the Edinburgh International Book Festival for “gender identity seminars” has also been canceled. An op-ed in The Times of London noted that this sum had come through USAID, though details have been sparse about the original rationale for linking LGBT festival programming to humanitarian relief.
Scottish government grants to charities focusing on LGBT and gender-related programs amount to millions of pounds, spread across multiple agencies and community organizations, according to the op-ed.
Government spokespeople and associated groups often cite these expenditures as necessary to promote “inclusive” policies, raising questions about whether any of the halted U.S. funds might have coincided with national or local grants.
Some of the worldwide allocations by USAID and other U.S. departments went to promoting messages about diversity, equity and inclusion. This has led many to ask why funding priorities have veered away from traditional humanitarian work?
“USAID? It sounds wonderful. Billions of US dollars going to help the poor, the starving and the sick. Only a cruel-hearted fascist could object and even seek to cancel it,” reads an op-ed by apologist and evangelist David Robertson published by Christian Today. “Donald Trump’s new government is now accused of enabling billionaires to rob the poor — through Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But dig beneath the outraged tweets and a most astonishing story comes to light. It is almost unbelievable.”
Although some of USAID’s funding was directed toward legitimate aid efforts, a significant portion was used to support foreign NGOs that aligned with the cultural and ideological goals of the U.S. government, often criticized as cultural imperialism, Robertson adds, noting that $2 million was given for COVID-19 research in Wuhan, China, which supported the Chinese military’s development of a gain-of-function virus, resulting in a global pandemic.
Additional expenditures included allocating $20 million to journalists for investigating Rudy Giuliani and $473 million to Internews, which dominates media funding in Ukraine, raising concerns about the selective use of aid to propagate U.S. progressive ideologies internationally, Robertson added.
Other questionable funding practices include expenditures like $1.5 million to promote diversity and inclusion in Serbian workplaces, and smaller, yet symbolic, amounts for projects like a transgender opera in Colombia and a transgender comic book in Peru, Robertson said.
