‘How do you make a map more gay?’: Rep Brian Mast grills State Dept official over Biden-era grant

WASHINGTON, DC: Rep Brian Mast asked a State Department official tough questions during a congressional hearing about several grants issued during the administration of former President Joe Biden to promote diversity.

One of the programs was said to be trying to make maps "more gay." The discussion took place during a meeting of the House Foreign Affairs Committee focused on State Department-funded public diplomacy programs.

Debate over Biden-era State Department DEI grants

Mast, a Republican from Florida who leads the committee, asked State Department official Sarah Rogers how taxpayer money was used for different diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) projects in other countries.

Sarah Rogers, the State Department’s undersecretary for public diplomacy, was testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a hearing titled: "Advancing National Security Through Public Diplomacy."

"Can you tell me what is queering the map?" asked Mast, who serves as chair of the committee. "So I think we were trying to make the maps more gay," said Rogers, referencing Biden administration efforts.

Rogers responded that the effort was meant to make maps “more gay,” referencing language used in the Biden administration’s programs promoting LGBTQ-related initiatives internationally.

"Literally? How do you make a map more gay? Or gay at all?" Mast replied.

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Rogers acknowledged she was unsure how the concept worked in practice and said she did not know exactly how the maps would be altered. "I don’t know," admitted Rogers.

"Since the age of cartography, we’ve had pretty good maps, but maybe they weren’t gay enough. I also took critical theory in college, and I think sometimes people use ‘queer’ as a verb.

Rep Brian Mast (R-FL) (C) gives members of the National Guard a tour (Getty Images)

“I do understand that the maps we were trying to make gay were, I think, of Czechia and Slovakia. So maybe those countries asked for it. I doubt it, but I don’t know."

Mast noted that lawmakers have "real things" to work on in Congress, such as the "imminent threat of Iran."

Mast argued the grants represented questionable spending priorities at a time when Congress is dealing with major national security issues.

"It is embarrassing that we have to talk about the fact that things like this were funded non-binary and transfranophones, linguistic attitudes and ideologies toward inclusive French in Montreal, Canada," he said.

Lawmakers reviewed several programs funded through public diplomacy grants. According to Mast, the list included projects tied to diversity initiatives and cultural outreach efforts in several countries.

"We would absolutely love to know the individuals specifically who were busy writing these grants, because they have no business receiving another paycheck from the people of the United States of America," he concluded.