US foreign aid freeze forces halt of programs for LGBTQ+ Filipinos
- Xave Gregorio
- Jan 29
- 3 min read
At least two Filipino LGBTQ+ organizations have been forced to halt the implementation of major projects after they received a jarring notice from the US State Department that it is suspending funding for these initiatives.
Transmasculine Philippines’ TANGGAP Trans Hub and Mujer LGBT+ Organization’s SOGIE-based human rights caravan ground to a sudden halt on Tuesday as the State Department froze funding for nearly all foreign aid.
TANGGAP Trans Hub was the first-ever transgender community center in the Philippines, while Mujer’s caravan mobilized government officials and employees against SOGIE-based discrimination.
The State Department told Mujer in a January 24 notice that the funding it was previously handing the group “no longer effectuates agency priorities.”
“Effective immediately upon receipt of this Notice of Suspension, the Recipient must stop all work on the program and not incur any new costs after the effective date cited above. The Recipient must cancel as many outstanding obligations as possible,” read the notice.
The State Department’s suspension of funding followed US President Donald Trump’s order to freeze foreign aid pending a review of whether these aligned with his administration’s policies.
“With several of our local LGBTQIA+ organizations dependent on awarded USAID funding, we believe the suspension endangers efforts to provide accessible services to community members, as well as individuals relying on such projects for their well-being,” Transmasculine PH Executive Director Dean Matthias Razi Alea said in a statement.
Rhadem Musawah, Mujer’s director of communications, told Mamser that the US funding freeze forced an immediate stop to their human rights caravan in 15 areas in Mindanao and three staff in charge of the program, whose contracts were supposed to end in August, had to be laid off.
“Wala man lang palugit sa (We didn’t even have some) time for us to smoothly transition toward termination,” Musawah said. “Gulatan ang ginawa (It came without warning).”
Prior to its halt, Musawah said, Mujer’s human rights caravan resulted in a gender and development ordinance in Dipolog City, anti-discrimination ordinances in Magsaysay town and Zamboanga City in the Zamboanga Peninsula, and SOGIE-based anti-discrimination ordinances in Panglima Sugala town in Tawi-Tawi and in the Bangsamoro region.
TANGGAP, on the other hand, gathered trans people and their allies in a physical space where they found educational resources, joined community-building activities, co-worked, played, and hung out.
‘Disempowered’
The funding freeze ordered by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio days after Trump returned to the White House was a nightmare turned reality for civil society organizations in the Philippines, many of whom are dependent on foreign aid.
Queer Filipino activists had warned after Trump secured a stunning victory in the November polls that funding for US-supported programs could dry up, including support for the Philippines’ response to HIV and AIDS that is buoyed by PEPFAR.
PEPFAR — the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — was also among the programs affected by the freeze, NPR reported.
Despite fears from advocates, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo Jose de Vega had downplayed the effect of the freeze “because the aid packages from the US are small right now.”
Alea said Transmasculine PH is “dedicated to providing … assistance” to those who wish to use the TANGGAP space as they “seek alternative fundraising opportunities.”
”As always, it was never about the money — only the work that unites our community and honors our queer siblings that came before us,” Alea added.
Musawah said in an earlier Facebook post that Mujer is “urgently revisiting our sustainability plan to minimize the impact,” but he later told Mamser that he is not exactly optimistic.
“Given the hostility of Trump towards the LGBT cause, we are already feeling that [the program] will be eventually terminated,” Musawah said.
He added: “Because of the suspension, na-disempower ang operation namin (our operation was disempowered) and hence the community we serve.”
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