How could the U.S. election affect LGBTQ+ aid funding?

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LONDON - Democrats and Republicans have had completely different stances on funding LGBTQ+ rights around the world through development aid.

Since 2011, Democratic presidents have supported LGBTQ+ rights through development policy.

Much of these efforts were reversed during Donald Trump's administration, while President Joe Biden strengthened LGBTQ+ aid programs and policies during his term.

Here's what you need to know.

When did the U.S. first support LGBTQ+ people as part of its aid policy?

Following early leaders like Sweden, the United States put resources behind LGBTQ+ equality in 2011 when then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the Global Equality Fund, with Washington pledging $3 million to a partnership supporting human rights groups. 

The move coincided with a broader push, as Barack Obama’s administration instructed U.S. diplomats and foreign aid workers to do more to promote the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender persons abroad. 

In 2015, Obama appointed the first special envoy to advance LGBTQ+ rights.

How does the USAID support LGBTQ+ people?

Biden's administration supports LGBTQ+ rights through specific programs and a broader policy.

While the Global Equality Fund and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) are funded through the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) contributes $15 million to two multi-donor programs dedicated to LGBTQ+ rights.

USAID’s Global Human Rights Initiative works in 16 countries across five regions, including Africa and Asia, providing grants for activities that span research into global attitudes toward LGBTQ+ people to funds supporting emergency responses to wrongful arrests. 

The agency’s Alliance for Global Equality is a public-private partnership run by rights group Outright International, funding small projects in western and sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. 

The program provides support to local nongovernmental organizations for initiatives like improving their financial resilience and providing mental health support, with at least 25% of funds going to transgender and intersex-led groups.

In 2023, the Biden administration launched the LGBTQI+ Inclusive Development Policy, which aims to ensure that "USAID staff should be proactive and implement intentional efforts to reach and include LGBTQI+ individuals in programming."

The purpose of the policy is to recognize that LGBTQ+ people are not a niche population and that all development programs can impact them, said Kristopher Velasco, an assistant professor of sociology at Princeton University.

Conversely, if HIV and AIDS response efforts are funded through conservative religious groups or organizations focused on the so-called "natural family," that can limit access for LGBTQ+ people, Velasco said. The natural family is a conservative view that marriage is between a man and woman.

"The State Department (would be) counteracting its own programs by not taking this into account," said Velasco, who researches how institutions facilitate the expansion of LGBTQ+ rights.

How could the election impact this funding?

Neither Republican presidential candidate Trump nor Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris' campaigns responded to requests to clarify their policy plans on LGBTQ+ aid.

Harris is expected to continue the current administration's policies, while Velasco said a second Trump administration is likely to mirror his first.

During Trump's time in office, the role of the special envoy was eliminated, and in a draft update of USAID policy in 2020, all references to LGBTQ+ people were removed.

This was largely seen as a result of then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's redefinition of human rights as "unalienable rights" to guide foreign policy, including a focus on religious freedom.

This put the focus on the "natural family," Velasco said, which meant not only defunding LGBTQ+ programs but actively supporting "organizations and policy viewpoints that hurt these populations."

"That is something that's very, very likely to come back again under the Trump administration," said Velasco.

(Reporting by Sadiya Ansari; Editing by Ayla Jean Yackley.)

This story is part of a series supported by Hivos's Free To Be Me programme