June 9, 2020
New Trump Appointee Claims America in Clutches of 'Homo-Empire'
READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Merritt Corrigan, a newly-installed member of the Trump administration, has taken her place as the White House deputy liaison to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAIDS) and is making headlines for claiming "the country is in the clutches of a 'homo-empire' that pushes a 'tyrannical LGBT agenda,'"
She also has a Phyllis Schlafly-inspired attitude towards feminism:
In October, Corrigan wrote
"A woman today is expected by society to come to marriage and motherhood in physical and spiritual decline, if ever," she wrote. "This is the life women have been offered by those who would rather us toil away as isolated economic units for faceless corporations, far from the natural pleasures of the domestic, far from the guardianship of a loving husband, and far from the life-giving experience of motherhood."
Corrigan's biography on the website described her as a "conservative political strategist." Rolling Stone reports was on the payroll of the Republican National Committee between 2016 and 2018, according to campaign finance records.
Her stated positions put her directly at odds with the 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."
"An appointee who eschews gender equality, meaningful democracy and LGBTI rights cannot possibly fulfill the mission of USAID," said Beirne Roose-Snyder, director of public policy at the Center for Health and Gender Equity.
Corrigan is also a fan of of Viktor Orban, the strongman leader of Hungary who recently used the COVID-19 crisis as an excuse to seize absolute power in that nation.
Politico notes that she has held the autocrat up as "the shining champion of Western civilization."
Corrigan also betrayed a either a deep confusion about what liberal democracy is and what it stands for, or else a cynical belief that people would not know what she was saying when she posted this gem:
"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'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.
USAID's new deputy chief of staff, Bethany Kozma, was previously an anti-transgender activist who wrote in 2016 that transgender girls are boys "claiming gender confusion." Kozma was formerly a senior adviser for women's empowerment at the agency.
