The WDI USA Lesbian Caucus comments on USAID “inclusion” policy

According to its website, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), “is the lead U.S. Government agency that works to end extreme global poverty.” USAID has proposed an “LGBTQI+ inclusive development policy” that would include “gender identity” ideology in all its dealings with any country receiving its aid. We can’t help wondering whether adopting the ideology is in practice actually a condition of receiving the aid.

Recently USAID invited comments on this draft policy. The Lesbian Caucus of WDI USA submitted the following comments on the draft, section by section.

Summary and Introduction
The document asserts that everyone has a gender identity. But that is ideology, not fact. We are lesbians, and we have a sex and a sexual orientation. These are not subjective identities. They are objective facts based on the material reality of sex. As radical feminists, we work to abolish “gender” because it is nothing more than regressive, socially constructed sex stereotypes that harm all women. Whether or not we appear “butch” or “fem”, every lesbian is a woman attracted to other women and not to men, even if those men lie about their sex.

Background
The USAID policy purports to protect lesbians from “social marginalization, stigma, and exclusion.” But lesbians are women exclusively attracted to other women. “Gender identity” propaganda actually promotes the social marginalization, stigma, and exclusion of lesbians by destroying the legitimacy of our right to reject the sex class of men as sexual partners.

Goals
The USAID policy’s stated goal is to drive “evidence-based policies” informed by “realities.” But then the “Goals” section elaborates that this means expanding the evidence base to include the “articulated priorities” of “transgender” individuals in particular. Data that relies on the articulated priorities of a group that by definition lies about their sex is not evidence at all; in fact, it is the opposite of evidence. Such data undermines the rights of lesbians.

Principles
“A world free of discrimination” is not a rational path toward “human rights, inclusion, and equity.” Oppressed groups such as lesbians must be free to discriminate between men and women. Otherwise, we are rendered unable to advocate for our group as defined by biological reality. Men must not be permitted to define themselves into the sex-based class “lesbians”, because this lie produces a world that discriminates against lesbians and deprives us of recourse. Policies that permit men to define themselves as lesbians, while prohibiting lesbians from defining ourselves according to the objective reality that lesbians are exclusively women, are patently discriminatory.

Policy into Practice
USAID’s stated policy of Do No Harm is incompatible with sterilizing children, including many girls who would otherwise grow up to be intact lesbians. It stigmatizes lesbians who reject men who claim to be lesbians. It is also incompatible with the ability of lesbians to exclude men from our public gatherings to socialize and organize politically as lesbians. Do No Harm in this context is a sick joke at the expense of lesbians.

Learning
[The Lesbian Caucus had no comments on this section.]

Conclusion
USAID’s conclusion quotes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” Forced-teaming lesbians with men who have a sexual fetish actually deprives lesbians of equal dignity and rights. Equal does not mean identical. Men are not women. A straight or bisexual man with a lesbian fetish is not a lesbian. He is the fox identifying as the hen to gain access to the hen house. He is a predator and an oppressor of lesbians. This policy and all those like it must be completely scrapped.

The Lesbian Caucus of WDI USA
Lauren Levey, coordinator 
Arla Hile
Katherine Kinny
Marian Rutigliano 
Heather Scalzi
Dana Stanley

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