President Trump’s Appointee to USAID Will Put an End to Political Correctness in Foreign Policy

President Donald Trump’s recent appointment of Bethany Kozma as Senior Adviser in the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Division of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is a welcome change for the agency, and one that also raises some serious questions about the organization she will join. Kozma was appointed by the President because of her conservative credentials and her prior service in the Administration of President George W. Bush, a combination of qualities that will serve her well in her new role. Before leaving government service to more fully focus on her family, Kozma served as White House staff and at the Department of Homeland Security. She reemerged from her self-imposed political retirement last year amidst the Obama Administration’s nationwide promotion of transgender bathroom policies in public schools.

Kozma began aggressively organizing moms across America to stand-up to President Obama’s misguided bathroom policies, writing that “I have jumped back into the world of politics and policy far earlier than I expected to because President Barack Obama’s school bathroom mandate is endangering the safety, security, and privacy of my children and yours.” Now, her activism has landed her an appointment by President Trump to help shape gender equality policy for USAID.

USAID was created in November, 1961 when President John F. Kennedy signed the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 into law and the new agency was born. USAID was designed to be a one-stop shop for U.S. foreign aide, which President Kennedy viewed as a way to bolster economic development in countries that might be influenced by communist ideology. Since its beginning nearly fifty-six years ago, however, USAID has slowly been hijacked by progressives who now use it as a hobby horse to promote abortion and the LGBT agenda on the world stage.

Under President Obama, USAID was enlisted to provide abortion and post-abortion care financing through the U.S. foreign aide program. Further, USAID under President Obama took transgender politics and made it official foreign policy through the aforementioned Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Division. Through its unconstitutional rewriting of Title 9 by executive order, the Obama Administration saw fit to force girls and boys to use restroom and shower facilities together, so that transgender individuals could use whichever facility they felt fit with their chosen gender identity. USAID was the vehicle employed to take President Obama’s misguided transgender policies global.

The Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment division of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) should be used to promote equality for women and children in countries that oppress them, many of which are run by Islamic theocrats, not to promote transgender bathroom policies. Under President Bush, for example, USAID helped establish schools in Afghanistan for women and young girls, so that they, too, could achieve their God-given potential. Instead of focusing on these dire needs, liberals have used USAID to support abortion and transgender bathrooms all over the world.

President Trump made the right decision in appointing Bethany Kozma as senior advisor to the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Division of USAID. I hope now that the Trump Administration goes further, and works with Congress to enact changes to our nation’s foreign aide policies to permanently defund programs aimed at exporting transgender bathroom politics and paying for abortions. John F. Kennedy viewed USAID as a tool to advance America’s national security interests during the Cold War; we should now view it as an opportunity to advance our interests in the era of Islamic extremism, and advance the rights of women, children, and religious minorities being oppressed by the likes of Iran and ISIS.

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