State Department Awards $30K Grant to Kyrgyzstan for Pro-Trans Group

The State Department awarded a $30,000 grant to an organization that promotes the transgender ideology in the mostly Muslim nation of Kyrgyzstan.

The grant from the State Department, which was given to an organization called Kyrgyz Indigo, was intended to “prevent gender-based violence against the transgender community and increase acceptance through sensitivity and advocacy trainings, and media campaigns.”

Kyrgyz Indigo calls itself the “largest LGBT+ human rights and advocacy organization in Central Asia” and partners with organizations like Amnesty International and George Soros’s Open Society Foundation. 

The organization has worked to support leftist activists with a “Training module on prevention of emotional burnout among activists from key populations in crisis / emergency situations, including COVID-19.” It isn’t clear whether or not the grant from the State Department will directly support this specific project.

The organization explained its objectives in a 35-page document, archived here, called “LGBT+ Inclusion to Sustainable Development Goals Agenda.”

One of Kyrgyz Indigo’s aims is to enable “unfettered access to unemployment insurance” for “all LGBT+ people and sex workers. The organization has also set its sights on education. Under a section titled “Necessary actions to promote equal access to quality education,” Kyrgyz Indigo advocates for schools to provide items “such as condoms, lubes, etc.”

“Due to widespread homophobia and transphobia, many children at school cannot express their SOGIESC,” the organization complains, using an acronym that refers to “sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics.”

Kyrgyz Indigo suggests that schools “implement training programs for teachers and counsellors on how to deal with LGBT+ students, schoolchildren who experience discrimination or ask questions about their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.”

Kyrgyz Indigo also complains that the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic does not currently allow those who identify as the opposite sex to change their sex on their passport. “It is extremely important for the state to amend the law to eliminate this barrier,” a guide from the organization reads.

The organization believes that there is a special “need for focused work and directed programs for trans people in HIV prevention” and cites a 2019 study that found the disease was prevalent among “trans women sex workers with migration experience.”

The implementation of hate speech laws is yet another aspect of Kyrgyz Indigo’s agenda, the 35-page guide explains. Kyrgyz Indigo also adheres to the leftist, culturally Marxist ideological tenet of intersectionality, whereby overlapping identities can make someone more or less marginalized. 

The guide explains“Another issue of inequality is the lack of an intersectional approach. People with intersecting forms of discrimination are most vulnerable to inequality, poverty, and violence.”

It goes on to claim “the most vulnerable within the LGBT+ community are trans* women sex workers, HIV-positive gays, bisexual men, trans* people, LGBT+ persons from ethnic minorities, LGBT+ migrants, trans* and intersex people, LBT+ women,” among others.

The guide states that “valuable comments and inputs” were supplied by Stephen J. Leonelli, who was formerly the Senior Policy Advisor of Mpact, a leftist pro-LGBT group. 

Leonelli, who states that he uses “he/him/she/her” pronouns on LinkedIn, now works for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as an “LGBTQI+ Program Advisor.” Leonelli states that he has “Federal Acquisition Certification for Contracting/Agreement Officer’s Representative Level II (FAC-COR II).” 

A State Department spokesperson provided a statement to Breitbart News, part of which read:

In support of American values, the U.S. Department of State provides funding for investments in educational, cultural, English and leadership training, entrepreneurship capacity building, and strengthening programs for civil society organizations that promote and advance the human rights of historically marginalized groups.

The spokesperson added that “indigenous persons” and “LGBTQI+ persons” live with disproportionate violence that requires targeted support. The spokesperson also noted that the State Department “supports a wide range of strategic programs around the world that seek to advance the foreign policy priority of reducing discrimination and violence and promoting inclusion.”

Spencer Lindquist is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerLndqst and reach out at [email protected]

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