The Patriot Post® · Americans Pay $180,000 for Official to Travel the Globe, Spreading Transgenderism
Stephen Moore, a distinguished fellow in Economics at The Heritage Foundation, said on Monday’s episode of “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” that President Joe Biden is “the most financially reckless president in American history.”
Currently, the U.S. sits at $34 trillion in debt. Despite this, Biden has continuously attempted to funnel thousands, millions, and sometimes billions of taxpayer dollars toward student loan forgiveness, Ukraine, and, perhaps most prominently, woke ideology. And many argue the latter is the worst of them all.
Examples of Biden’s financial recklessness include the amount of money he has put toward furthering LGBT ideology. Aside from the $1.4 million his administration approved for the Department of Health and Human Services to assist trans-identifiers, news broke on Monday that a Biden official makes six figures solely to travel and push the LGBT agenda throughout the globe.
In some ways, Jessica Stern has what some consider a dream job. She gets paid over $180,000 to travel the globe. So far, she’s ventured to at least 22 countries across each of the six continents. As someone who spent roughly seven of my formative years traveling throughout Europe, this job sounds fantastic! That is, until you find out what Stern actually does.
As the State Department’s special envoy, Stern is tasked with one purpose: to “Advance the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Persons.” Her job includes “promoting far-left views on sex and gender, lobbying foreign governments, and assisting activist organizations.”
With scarcely a mention in the legacy media, some may be surprised to learn that Stern was appointed by President Biden in 2021 as part of his push for wokeism, which he classified as a “U.S. foreign policy priority.” And Stern seems to be fairly good at what she does.
In her travels, Stern has met with several foreign government officials, including Brazil’s Minister of Human Rights, Foreign Affairs, Health, Labor, Justice, and Native People, as well as members of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and members of Swedish Parliament. The list goes on.
Although we can’t give Biden all the credit, since Stern’s position was first created under the Obama administration — it was then left vacant under President Donald Trump. But Family Research Council has been tracking Stern’s work for several years. Two FRC experts, Center for Religious Liberty Director Arielle Del Turco and Senior Fellow for Regulatory Affairs Chris Gacek, wrote a report that exposed the Biden administration’s radical ideological push in foreign policy.
The report stated, “LGBT-identifying persons are already (rightly) protected by international human rights treaties by virtue of their personhood, not their sexual orientation or gender identity. Pushing LGBT-specific policies around the world is a coercive attempt to change foreign cultures and laws from afar and displaces human rights like religious freedom.”
In comments to The Washington Stand, Del Turco shared more of her concerns. “From the beginning, the Biden administration has had entirely misplaced foreign policy priorities.”
Del Turco continued, “There are wars taking place in Ukraine and Gaza, mounting hostility from China, and strained relations with U.S. allies. Yet, according to State Department officials, LGBT issues are a top foreign policy priority for President Biden. This is not only immoral, but ineffective foreign policy.” She emphasized that U.S. diplomats reflect “the American people as a whole,” not merely the federal government.
“Yet,” she added, “the Biden administration’s radical LGBT push does not represent all Americans, and many Americans would be appalled by the LGBT policies that American diplomats are urging other countries to adopt.”
Del Turco said that, as of right now, “The United States is still the most powerful country in the world, and we ought to steward that responsibility wisely.” However, she urged, “It is downright abusive for high-level U.S. diplomats like Stern to travel to smaller, more dependent countries and pressure them to enact radical social polices invented by leftist Western elites.”
She concluded, “Doing so is harmful not only to those societies, it also harms U.S. relations with these other countries that don’t want to endure the Biden administration’s bullying.”
Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.