WASHINGTON — During a hearing at the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week, Rep. Brian Mast (R-Florida) questioned a State Department official about international grants for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs under the former Biden administration.
The hearing was titled “Advancing National Security Through Public Diplomacy,” where Sarah Rogers, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy at the State Department, testified before lawmakers.
During the questioning, Mast asked about grants given to academic and cultural research programs in various countries.
“Can you explain what ‘queering the map’ means?” Mast asked.
Rogers replied that in some programs during the Biden administration, the stated goal was to “make the maps more gay,” a phrasing she said related to academic approaches in critical theory.
Mast continued: “How do you make a map more gay?”
Rogers acknowledged: “I’m not sure either. In cartography, we’ve had pretty good maps for a long time, but apparently they weren’t ‘gay enough.’”
According to Mast, other grants under DEI programs included:
Research on inclusive language in French in Montreal (Canada)
Diversity and inclusion programs in Luxembourg, Spain, New Zealand, Canada, and Malaysia
A diversity flash mob in Kyrgyzstan
Transgender and intersex leadership training programs in India
Mast argued that Congress should focus on more pressing security and geopolitical issues.
“We have real problems to solve, like the threat from Iran. Having to discuss expenditures like these is truly embarrassing,” he said.
The hearing took place amid Congressional review of spending on public diplomacy programs through earlier hearings.
