The Department of State is weighing its options for funding gender transition services for diplomats and their dependents, according to a strategic plan for 2022-2026.
The State Department is assessing what resources are available for foreign diplomats and their dependents who wish to transition to the opposite sex, according to the strategic plan. Gender transition treatments can include talk therapy, cross-sex hormones and surgeries, though it’s unclear what forms of support the State Department aims to provide and whether that would apply to dependents who are minors.
The move comes after an August report revealed the State Department was pressuring foreign countries to crack down on forms of therapy for children with gender identity issues that don’t automatically affirm their transgender status.
We continue our work to ensure that all transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming persons are able to live safely and feel included. Trans rights = human rights. #TDOV pic.twitter.com/uBSrxlbJJ9
— Department of State (@StateDept) March 31, 2022
The strategic plan includes a subsection on LGBT inclusion at overseas posts, including goals such as creating more gender-neutral bathrooms and locker rooms in overseas facilities and promoting pro-LGBT policies for children in schools abroad. (RELATED: Vanderbilt To Pause Gender Transition Surgeries On Minors Following Bombshell Report)
The plan proposes that the State Department “develop a Department-wide targeted plan to achieve equity in the advocacy plan to obtain the accreditation of same-sex spouses overseas … assess resources for gender dysphoria and gender transition care at posts for employees and their dependent [and] increase gender-neutral restrooms and locker rooms in overseas facilities.”
The plan recommends guidance be created for protesting policies of foreign countries viewed as discriminatory and recommends the State Department collaborate with accreditation agencies for overseas schools to provide “social-emotional support” for LBGT students.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently told embassies to “submit robust information on the so-called ‘conversion therapy’ practices” in their host countries as part of their annual human rights reports, according to an August City Journal report. Blinken believes the “wait and see” approach to childhood gender issues, which doesn’t automatically affirm a child’s transgender identity, is a form of conversion therapy.
The memo was met with outrage from Republican lawmakers, who rebuked the guidance in a September letter.
“The State Department’s memo is a form of radical gender imperialism that threatens our relationships with other nations and harms our standing in the world,” the lawmakers wrote. “Many countries in Europe … employ either ‘last line of defense’ policies on ‘gender affirming care,’ or have banned gender surgeries for youth altogether. These more restrictive policies now risk making Western European nations “human rights abusers” in the eyes of the State Department, putting them on similar footing as the People Republic of China (PRC), which has committed genocide.”
The State Department did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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