The State Department is sponsoring a program to “uplift transgender and gender diverse” young people in Pure through a version of ballroom dancing “that began in the Black and Latinx LGBTQIA community.”
“Ballroom Saves Lives: Resiliency and Wellness in Peru,” the program supported by the State Department, seeks to use ballroom to connect young LGBTQIA+ leaders with medical resources and to build trust between them and healthcare providers. The program received support as part of the Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund (CDAF), which the State Department uses to boost projects that strengthen democracy, fight disinformation, protect the environment or aid refugees.
Ballroom, as a subculture, originated in New York City in the 1970s and often involves drag queens, according to Vogue. Popular ballroom tracks include “Work This Pussy (Hurt Me Mix),” “Cunty (The Feeling)” and “Svere Pussy Pop Ha,” among others, according to New York Magazine. (RELATED: State Department Weighs Funding Sex Change Treatments For Employees And Their Kids)
The program will consist of three ballroom events and a series of workshops.
The State Department launched CDAF in 2019 and, since then, has given out $1.85 million in grants, according to its website. The grants max out at $10,000 and intend to support projects designed by alumni of U.S. government-sponsored exchange programs.
Programs funded by CDAF in 2022 included one about teaching “the role jazz plays in the quest for freedom, democracy, and civil rights,” workshops about “hip-hop, graffiti, and dance (breaking, popping, and locking),” and “Empowering Women Leaders in Rural Morocco.”
(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Ballroom dancing for LGBTQIA+ youth in Peru isn’t the first LGBT program the State Department has supported.
The State Department funded an LGBTQ+ film festival in Portugal that showed movies depicting incest and a minor having sex with an adult. The department stood by its decision to support the festival, citing its support for “protecting and promoting the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons,” the Washington Free Beacon reported.
The State Department did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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