Click here to RSVP for our Women for Kavanaugh, “I Stand with Brett” Rally in Washington, DC, this Thursday, September 27, 2018, 8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
CWA at University of California, Berkeley
CWA’s Communications Coordinator, Annabelle Rutledge, and CWA’s National Field Director, Janae Stracke, were able to set up a meeting with the Vice President of the College Republicans on Berkeley’s campus in Oakland. Anti-Semitism has been on the rise on college campuses, and we had hoped to be a resource to students as they engage their peers in dialogue. This meeting was intended to find out what the greatest need is and to assess what CWA’s role could be.
The student with whom we met has himself been attacked on campus several times and every day has a target on his back for his conservative views. Other students will tweet his location so he can be targeted. He was incredibly grateful and encouraged by CWA’s interest and support. He was also able to connect us with the only two outspoken conservative professors on campus and students at other universities, such as Stanford and San Francisco State. He invited us to speak at one of their meetings and gave a lot of insight on Berkeley regulations for tabling and demonstrations. We were surprised at how easy it is for groups, even groups not affiliated with the campus, to table on UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza. The key to success being large, eye-grabbing banners and pop-ups, a plethora of materials for both hanging up and handing out, as well as support for students who are opening themselves up to persecution from their peers by standing for their beliefs.
CWA on the ground in Montecito, California
Last week our latest Prayer Action Chapter co-leaders, Joy Bohlinger and Naomi Van Wyk hosted an event in Montecito, California, which drew around 50 women from the surrounding area! Each one of these women are God-fearing world changers ready to fight for their values. Each woman has a unique circle of influence—whether it is as the wife of a prominent pastor, connections to Hollywood elites, a background in the policy realm, or a mother in a homeschool group.
We spent time worshipping before showing a few videos and giving them an overview of Concerned Women for America. We closed the event by going over action items and pouring praying over our country, the state of California, CWA, and the action items shared. Two of the action items discussed were the upcoming Governor’s race and AB 2756.
AB2756 was a bill that would place strict regulations on homeschooling families, including curriculum specifications and required teaching certification for parents, among other regulations. We spent a good portion of time praying over this bill and asking the women to contact their State Assembly members.
The very next day, Wednesday, April 25, in a stunning late-night victory for California homeschoolers and parental rights, AB 2756 was defeated in the Assembly Education Committee.
All of the attendees were also urged to vote in the June 5 primary election, knowing California will only allow the top two candidates on the final ballot, no matter their party.
In the beginning, God made man and woman in His own likeness—two distinct sexes each with unique and special characteristics—and declared His creation “good”. Who could have anticipated that this God-given and inherent identity of gender and sex would be so debated, twisted, and redefined by the liberal left today? Even more incredible is that the U.S government under Obama-era policies, not content with promoting multiple gender and sexual “identities” within the U.S., spends millions of tax dollars promoting Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Inquiring (LGBTI) cultural acceptance into foreign countries under the guise of “gender development” and “human rights”.
As Americans, regardless of whether or not we agree with a person’s sexual or gender “orientation”, we strongly believe in supporting the human rights of all people around the world and applaud the efforts of our government in this regard. That is, the right of a people to seek fulfillment of their basic needs, to feed and clothe themselves, to fully participate in society, and to be defended against human rights abuses such as violence, killing, wrongful discrimination, and false imprisonment. To be clear, we strongly support any programming which condemns the abuse of people who identify themselves as LGBTI and which builds the capacity within countries to treat all people equally and with human dignity.
However, currently the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) promote LGBT cultural and social acceptance within foreign countries through taxpayer-funded programs that extend far beyond the context of basic human rights. Rather, these programs encourage the exploration of gender and sexual identity, and promote multiple identities/orientations as a “progressive” value. These programs are backed by a political agenda begun during the Obama Administration and continue today in spite of the differing viewpoint of the Trump administration.
Recently, Concerned Women for America met with a Trump-appointed USAID senior official to express the concern that these programs contradict the priorities of foreign assistance and damage our relationship with foreign peoples. We base are concern on four main points:
- First, these programs turn gender development funding and programming away from increasing the wellbeing of women and girls around the world. This is unfortunate, especially considering that initiatives protecting the rights of females and advancing their participation in the social, economic, and political spheres are severely lacking in support and funding. To consider: While millions of people are victims of human trafficking each year, 50% of whom are women and 21% of whom are girls under the age of 18[1], and while 41% of girls in the least developed countries are married before the age of 18,[2] the U.S. is funding homosexual and transgender cultural acceptance into foreign countries under the name of gender development. We at Concerned Women for America consider this taxpayer money that is not well spent.
- Second, these programs and initiatives violate the conscience, culture, values and religious beliefs of the majority of the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian people in the countries we propose to “support” with U.S. aid.
- Third, as taxpayer funded programs, these programs should represent the values of the majority of American citizens, but unfortunately they do not.
- And fourth, there is little to no scientific research to show that the cultural socialization of LGBT values abroad contributes to foreign policy goals or even the developmental objectives of USAID’s Guiding Principles.
As was explained to CWA during the meeting at USAID, many of these programs have been left over from the previous administration and will remain until their contract runs out. Simply put, just because a new administration takes office, it does not mean that current programming will immediately expire or change. However, CWA wants our constituents to be aware of how foreign taxpayer dollars are currently spent and to know that we are monitoring the progress of the potential change in the focus of U.S. development aid and foreign relations. For example, the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism is currently seeking a nonprofit to “explore gender identities of boys and men in Kenya”, stating that men being “tough, heterosexual, aggressive, unemotional, and achieving” increases their vulnerability to joining groups of Islamic extremism. [3]
Concerned Women for America urges our government to strongly oppose human rights abuses against LGBT communities but also to no longer entangle U.S. tax dollars with LGBT cultural issues overseas through U.S. embassies, schools, and international programming. We ask that our tax dollars be redirected toward objectives that focus more clearly on U.S. foreign diplomacy and developmental goals. We ask that our “gender empowerment” tax dollars be used to promote policies and programs which best support the rights and wellbeing of females around the world. Last, we ask that State and USAID-funded programs be representative of the majority of the values and beliefs of Americans and of the foreign cultures which we support.
The following is only a small part of LGBT activist efforts on behalf of the U.S. government. According to the Obama White House Fact Sheet from June 2016: [4]
- The U.S. Department of State … “launched two global funding partnerships – the Global Equality Fund and the LGBT Global Development Partnership – which have provided millions of dollars in assistance … to LGBT civil society activists and organizations” (emphasis added). The Global Equality Fund alone spent more than $30 million dollars in 80 countries.
- Multiple departments and agencies, including State, USAID, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and the Peace Corps, provide training “for staff and implementing partners to better understand the issues of gender identity and sexual orientation and agency roles in advancing the human rights of LGBT persons”.
- U.S. embassies, consulates, USAID missions, and Department of Defense installations around the world host and participate in gay pride events, and march in gay pride parades. U.S. embassies around the world fly rainbow flags to show homosexual pride support.
Currently, USAID supports a large number of field- and Washington-based programs and funding avenues that are LGBT-specific or LGBT-inclusive, including within schools in developing countries. These programs are based on the principles written in the 23-page USAID policy document titled “LGBTI Vision for Action.”[5] A few examples are:
- USAID’s LGBTI Global Development Partnership key activities include awarding over 100 grants to LGBTI civil society organizations and training over 1,700 LGBTI entrepreneurs and businesses
- USAID promotes “LGBTI Education Inclusion” in schools around the world through multiple avenues including:
- Regional Development Mission for Asia: Partnering the Purple My School initiative through a program called “Being LGBTI in Asia” in schools in eight different countries. This program is facilitated by teachers who discuss the issues of homophobia and the free expression of gender identity and sexual orientation. Students are encouraged to wear, draw, or make something purple.
- Hosting LGBTI rights and inclusion training to over 140 school principals in USAID’s Basic Education Program in Kosovo within its annual School Management and Leadership Program.
- Hosting a Live Chat for LGBTI Pride Month at the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia
- Providing LGBTI Online Training courses through USAID University
[1] United Nations (2014) UNODC, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2014, (United Nations Publication, Sales No. E 14. V.10) p. 5
[2] UNICEF Child-protection-child marriage database may 2016, Web Accessed August 2017 at: data.unicef.org.
[3] http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/01/22/state-department-spending-592500-to-explore-gender-identities-boys-and-men-in-kenya.html
[4] The White House Office of the Press Secretary (June 29, 2016) June 2016 Update. Web accessed October 17, 2017 at: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/06/29/fact-sheet-promoting-and-protecting-human-rights-lgbt-persons
[5] https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1874/LGBT%20Vision.pdf.
Almost a year has passed since the Trump Administration entered the White House, yet the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development are still in “the ninth year of Obama,” as a senior State Department official describes it. The reason for this description? Both organizations continue Obama-era programs and policies with a staff the majority of whom support spending billions of taxpayer dollars to promote “reproductive rights” (read abortion) and LGBT ideology in foreign countries. As Trump nominees await Senate confirmation to vacant positions in the State Department, Obama-era staff run amuck with little accountability and full rein to ignore, block, and generally derail the new administration’s agenda. Unfortunately for the Christian conservatives who helped get Trump elected, a source in the State Department, who spoke to us under condition of anonymity, estimates less than 2% of State Department staff actually represent those values.
Recently, Fox News reported 96 vacant positions in the State Department alone. Of those vacancies, 73 have no nominee and 21 are Trump nominations still awaiting Senate confirmation. Approximately 14 of those are ambassadorships. On the State Department’s webpage listing the “Assistant Secretaries and Other Senior Officials,” 45 positions are currently listed vacant as of this writing.
It is true that President Trump plans to reduce the number of staff within the State Department, but the Democrat’s intentional obstruction of President Trump’s nominees is hurting the country. In the first six months of Obama’s presidency, a total of 206 judicial and executive branch nominees were confirmed; by comparison, President Trump had only 55 judicial and executive confirmations in his first six months. Obama’s nominees were confirmed at an average of 50 days; Trump nominees are taking an average of 69 days. Those numbers indicate that the problem area is executive nominations because, as Mario Diaz, Esq., Concerned Women for America’s Legal Counsel has written, Trump has fared well when it comes to judicial nominations this year.
Still, at this rate, according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, it would take 11 years to confirm all of President Trump’s nominees. That’s because of the deliberate obstruction of executive nominations. Take Callista Gingrich, for example, she was nominated in May 25, 2017, as U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See and finally confirmed in October 16. That’s 144 days.
In large part, liberal senators are blocking Trump nominees by abusing the typical Senate procedure for confirmation. They continuously object to Trump nominations, whatever their record, triggering a default post-cloture debate rule that requires 30 hours of debate on the Senate floor before confirmation of each nominee. The rule, first adopted during Woodrow Wilson’s presidency, was actually established to force an end to Senate stalling tactics and limit the consideration of an issue to 30 additional hours of debate. Now it is being used precisely for stalling the president’s agenda.
Concerned Women for America (CWA) calls on Congress to speed up the confirmation process and quickly appoint those who will support the issues and ideology for which Trump was elected by the American people. We urge our members to call on their senators to push Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to stop the gridlock and confirm Trump’s nominees. Additionally, we call on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to change Senate procedure, reduce the debate time on nominations from 30 hours to eight or fewer hours, and allow the Senate to confirm more than one or two nominees a week. For the millions of Americans who elected President Donald Trump and his platform to make America great again, “the ninth year of Obama” is unacceptable—and time is moving on.
Concerned Women for America (CWA) Pesident & CEO Penny Nance visits the 700 Club.
