America's Talking - Critics Blast DOJ Funding for Projects Tailored to Gender, Sexuality Politics

Episode Date: June 11, 2023

A taxpayer-funded grant from the Department of Justice distributed $150,000 to “amplify the voices” of transgender people in New Orleans who are accusing the police of discrimination. Based on the assumption that LGBT people of color are discriminated against by police, Rutgers University researchers pledged to find 25 subjects and “conduct narrative interviews” to document their experiences. This study is one of many examples of taxpayer-funded federal research dollars going to projects tailored to progressive gender and sexuality politics. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, and welcome to American Focus, powered by the Center Square. I am Dan McAulb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. Joining me again today is Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief for the Center Square, Casey, Casey, since President Joe Biden has been in office, he's certainly taken the federal government to the left with progressive policies, particularly with Republicans calling him and those policies awoke. You uncovered some evidence this week about how the Department of Justice has been going that way, too, with its policies. I'm distributing a $150,000 grant to amplify the voices of transgender people in New Orleans who are accusing police officers there of discrimination. Is that within parameters of the Department of Justice? Republicans are being critical of this kind of spending of taxpayer dollars. Tell us about it.

Yeah, that's right. I mean, so this is, on first blush, you might say, okay, $150,000, federal. government spending trillions a year, why does this really matter? But first reported about it that I saw at the center square.com where you find all the best reporting, Dan, the center square.com. It's a really interesting story, as you said, it's $150,000. To quote, amplify the voices. That's the direct quote of transgender people in Orleans who are basically, the researchers

came in from Rutgers University, came in and said, we know that there's racism in the New Orleans Police Department. So we're going to go, instead of collecting data to verify that transgender people are actually being targeted at a different rate or something. We're just going to assume they are and then interview them and conduct quote, conduct narrative interviews. And then combine those interviews and use it to just kind of put a face and a story to what we know is already happening.

And the study was titled Intersexual Subjection and Law Enforcement, examining perceptions held by LGBTQ people of color in New Orleans, Louisiana. Perceptions and data are different things, Dan. I think that's the first criticism that came to light when I started talking to researchers about this, you know, collecting anecdotal evidence. from people who have a certain specific political view that you handpick is anything but real data or real research. So that's the first question is, what is the quality of research being conducted at federal agencies in recent years? And I've written several stories about this across different agencies, a National Institute of Health I've written about.

Now, of course, the Department of Justice, but it's not exclusive to them. And I found that there's this trend, I'd say about the last 10 years, really since about 2015, some are earlier than that. But that seems where it's really increasing. And the trend is that more and more of federal research money is being kind of diverted away, maybe siphoned away from the intended purposes, going to increasingly political or what critics would call, you know, people like Ronda Sanders would call woke spending. And so I just keep going through these databases, calling through what this research grant money is going to. And I'm finding again and again money that in this case was supposed to go towards finding data for race and policing going to transgender narratives, right? Or money I found looking at research grants in the National Institute of Health. which is supposed to be finding medical cures, and they're researching gay dating apps and how men are impacted by gay dating apps. And so, and there's just so many examples I could go through. In this case, it's the DOJ. But I don't know. It's interesting. On one level, of course, universities are going to show some interest in some of these topics. We know that universities are pretty progressive and

liberal. But the question is, does the average American taxpayer really want to be paying for this kind of thing? And even beyond that, how much are these hyper-liberal, progressive, woke factions within universities being subsidized and kept running by American taxpayers. I agree with you that, you know, this was a $150,000 grant. That's a drop in the bucket when you look at the overall federal budget. But this is one grant of you've uncovered dozens already, but there's probably hundreds, even thousands of the similar types of these grants that are out there. We just went through the debt ceiling battle. We have massive budget deficits. I think it's rise to question these kinds, this kind of spending seems to be under the Biden administration so widespread. Yeah, you can

nickel and dime it or whatever, but those nickels and those dimes add up when you're talking about hundreds, even possibly thousands of similar type grants. Why I'm trying to report about it now and early is because we are seeing an increasing trajectory, right? So a few years ago, it was just, you know, 10 years ago, it was just a one-off thing. But, you know, in 2012, it was occasional. But now in 2023, I'd say it's becoming common. So the question is 2033, is it going to be, be some bill that says 10% of all research funding must go to these causes. I mean, I'm seeing a, we're seeing an upper trajectory. So if we keep on this trend, this is going to be a major line item of spending for the federal government. And so I think we're just so early reporting on it,

that maybe it seems like this isn't as big a problem. But I think that's because we're catching catching something early. Well, it was a good reporting. Casey. And I know you're going to continue digging into federal government spending how the federal government uses your, my, our listeners, tax dollars. But that is all the time we have this week. A listeners can keep up with all of Casey's Great Reporting at the CenterSquare.com for Casey Harper. I'm Dan McAulam. Please subscribe and thank you for listening.