The bulk of the payments, roughly $6 million, went toward enhancing “access to rights” for “LGBTQI+ refugees and migrants” in Columbia. An additional $2 million went toward fostering “sustainable solutions” for LGBT migrants and refugees in Peru. Other federal programs for gay refugees included psychological counseling, legal services, medical support, and efforts to integrate them into their host nations.

The State Department has made funding foreign LGBT activism a cornerstone of its diplomatic strategy under Biden, with spokespeople for the agency having stated that promoting LGBT inclusion abroad is a “foreign policy priority.” Additionally, the department publishes annual reports documenting its work promoting pro-LGBT policies across the world.

“When U.S. Departments and Agencies work to advance the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons around the world, they advance our national security,” the department’s 2024 LGBTQI+ Annual Report reads. “As our nation’s leaders have recognized, government–sponsored attacks on the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons are a ‘canary in the coal mine’ signal of broader threats to civil society, economic prosperity, and even national stability. These threats, in turn, pose risks for the United States, ranging from terrorism and transnational crime to pandemics and other public health dangers.”

Among the pro-LGBT foreign grants paid out, purportedly to advance America’s interests abroad, was just over $25,000 to “assist LGBTQI+ migrants in Italy by offering legal, psychological, social, medical, and interdisciplinary support to overcome linguistic, cultural, and social barriers to integration.”

Costa Rica attracted special attention from the State Department due to it being “the only Central American country that grants asylum due to persecution of a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity.” The department spent roughly $310,000 on a program to provide LGBT migrants residing in the country with “training, certification, and psychosocial and legal assistance.” Funding for that program also went toward an effort to make Panama more pro-LGBT. Other federally-funded programs performed in Costa Rica included “advancing computer skills for LBGTIQ+ refugees” and assisting LGBT migrants with their initial entry and integration into the country. 

“Americans are far from agreeing on how to deal with race, sex, and ‘gender’ in schools and workplaces,” Heritage Foundation senior research fellow Simon Hankinson wrote in 2022. “Even when U.S. national consensus is there, restraint is always necessary in attempting to convince other nations that one’s own values should be theirs. The U.S. must balance the likelihood of convincing potential allies with the likelihood of hostile reactions to perceived interference or ‘cultural colonialism.’”

Other grants paid out by the State Department to support LGBT migrants included enhancing the “protection and inclusion” of LGBT refugees in Kenya, constructing housing and providing an egg farming investment capital for LGBT refugees in Malawi, funding “comprehensive care for vulnerable LGBTIQI+ migrants” in Mexico, paying for legal and psychological services on behalf of LGBT refugees in Greece, and promoting the “social integration and economic inclusion” of gay migrants in Ecuador, among others.

“The United States is the largest single donor of humanitarian assistance globally, working to save lives, promote human dignity, help stabilize volatile situations, promote respect for human rights, and provide critical assistance to people in some of the world’s most vulnerable situations,” a State Department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “The United States works with international and non-governmental organization partners to provide inclusive protection and support to particularly vulnerable populations in humanitarian contexts, including LGBTQI+ refugees and vulnerable migrants.”