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Two New Appointees to U.S. AID Denounce LGBT, Muslims and Democracy
The acting USAID administrator John Barsa is a disgrace to the agency. Two recent appointees by Barsa are hateful people who have no place in a government agency.
A new Trump appointee to the United States’ foreign aid agency - Merritt Corrigan, who recently took up a position as deputy White House liaison at the U.S. Agency for International Development - has a history of online posts denouncing liberal democracy and has said that the country is in the clutches of a “homo-empire” that pushes a “tyrannical LGBT agenda.”
USAID officials confirmed that Barsa chose Mark Kevin Lloyd to be USAID’s new “religious freedom adviser.” In 2016, the Associated Press reported that Lloyd had made and shared several Islamophobic posts on his social media accounts. On June 30 of that year, he shared a post on Facebook that called Islam “a barbaric cult.”
For those keeping score, that is TWO DIFFERENT HEINOUS PEOPLE noted above - Merritt Corrigan and Mark Lloyd. More of each of them below.
This is just the latest reason officials and aid experts are concerned about the politicization and dysfunction of the country’s lead development agency under acting administrator John Barsa — a particularly dangerous dynamic in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.
The appointments are just the latest in a series of Trump administration moves that are raising concerns it is undermining USAID’s ability to fulfill its mission as the United States’ lead agency for helping the world’s poorest countries improve their economy, security and health.
First, more on Corrigan, then we'll go to Lloyd.
Corrigan... wrote: “Liberal democracy is little more than a front for the war being waged against us by those who fundamentally despise not only our way of life, but life itself.” Corrigan previously worked for the Hungarian Embassy in the United States and tweeted that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is “the shining champion of Western civilization." Orban, a far-right politician, has cracked down on civil society, academic freedom and other liberties.
Corrigan wrote on her Twitter account that “our homo-empire couldn’t tolerate even one commercial enterprise not in full submission to the tyrannical LGBT agenda.”
In October 2019, Corrigan wrote an op-ed in The Conservative Woman decrying “the false song of feminism” and calling for women to take up traditional roles of mother, wife and homemaker.
She was on the payroll of the Republican National Committee between 2016 and 2018...
It is utterly shameful that someone with these views serves US AID. Her position serves at the pleasure of the White House and the Barsa should request Corrigan step down immediately. Someone with views this toxic toward their LGBT colleagues should not be serving at the agency.
And then there's Lloyd, who we almost mistook for this other guy who also hates Muslims and was appointed by Trump.
Four days after the Orlando terrorist attack that same June, he shared a meme saying potential gun buyers should be forced to eat bacon. In another post, Lloyd wrote that “those who understand Islam for what it is are gearing up for the fight,” the AP reported. Those post are no longer public, but Lloyd’s Facebook account as of Tuesday still shows public posts where he accuses Barack Obama of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and says people who believe Islam is a peaceful religion don’t understand history.
The spokesperson also said Lloyd has experience working for a faith-based provider of global relief assistance, called Gleaning for the World, that will be valuable during the covid-19 pandemic. Two officials at the organization told me Lloyd hadn’t worked there since at least 2005. USAID declined to clarify his role there.
It's hard to be shocked that an incompetent person like Barsa would encourage such fellow hateful people to join him at USAID.
The White House named Barsa acting administrator last month without even consulting the State Department, reaching down to elevate him over more qualified senior officials. In the brief period since his appointment, Barsa has already gotten into hot water by writing a harshly worded letter to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres demanding the removal of references to “sexual and reproductive health” from a recent U.N. pandemic response plan, and insisting that no funding be allowed to go to abortions.
Lloyd's appointment is just one of the moves officials and experts cite as evidence that Barsa is politicizing and mismanaging USAID, a $31 billion agency.
Similarly....
Corrigan’s appointment is the latest example of the Trump administration bringing in officials to USAID whose stated views put them at odds with the agenda the agency says it promotes.
Corrigan's stated positions put her directly at odds with the stated goals of her new employer. USAID uses a “liberal democracy index” as one of its metrics in deciding whether a country is self-reliant, and it has an entire office dedicated to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The agency’s website says it is working for a world in which LGBT people are “respected and able to live with dignity, free from discrimination, persecution, and violence.”
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