Budget turned on its earmarks: Millions for woke items, including transgender hormones, underwear

Conservatives flagged a bevy of earmarks for pet congressional causes in the 1,012-page minibus that cleared the Senate Saturday, such as $400,000 for Garden State Equality in New Jersey, which promotes “FREE gender-affirming garments.”

They include chest binders, used to flatten female chests, and gaffs, designed to “help minimize the appearance of a crotch bulge.” The earmark was requested by New Jersey Democratic Sens. Cory Booker and Robert Menendez.

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Advancing American Freedom, a conservative group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, ticked off a list of the package’s “good, bad, and ugly,” the last of which included $400,000 for Briarpatch Youth Services earmarked by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin Democrat.

The organization’s Teens Like Us LGBTQIA2s+ program offers counseling and “gender-affirming clothing,” according to an AAF screen grab, and emphasizes that youth “do NOT need parent/guardian permission to join.”

“Democrats are trying to push a $400K earmark for an organization giving confused 13-year-olds binding and tucking clothing without parental permission,” AAF said in a statement. “The federal government should NOT be subsidizing trans clothing for MINORS!”

After the Republican Party of Wisconsin accused Ms. Baldwin of choosing “Woke over Wisconsin Parents,” her spokesman, Eli Rosen, said the funding would be used for counseling and not the Teens Like Us activities.

“Senator Baldwin is proud to deliver resources for Wisconsin to help kids experiencing homelessness get the care they need and land on their feet,” Mr. Rosen told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Conservatives also highlighted $350,000 for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Connecticut, $740,000 to “increase diversity in state contracting” in Maryland and $2 million for La Clinica, an Oregon clinic that provides “gender-affirming hormone therapy for adults and adolescents.”

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“$740,000 for a Latino LGBT organization in Seattle. When I clicked on their webpage, I got invited to a drag brunch in April!” said Mr. Norman.

Other flagged earmarks included $200 million for the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Gender Equity and Equality Action Fund and $32.5 million for the United Nations Population Fund, an agency accused of promoting an “extremist abortion agenda,” which it denies.

Mr. Norman noted in his “Earmarks are Evil” thread on X that the Rhode Island group AS220 received $870,000 for an Emerging Artist Fellowship Program, despite its advocacy for defunding the police and “other atrocious woke demands.”

Republicans also blasted the $850,000 earmarked for LGBTQ Senior Housing in Massachusetts, which is building the “first LGBTQ-affirming affordable senior housing development in New England.”

“Why would your tax dollars go to this??” asked the House Freedom Caucus.

Rhode Island Democratic Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse earmarked $1.8 million for Providence’s Women & Infants Hospital, which performs surgical abortions up to 22 weeks into pregnancy. Abortion is legal in Rhode Island until fetal viability, or 22-24 weeks.

Mr. Reed defended the funding, saying it would go to the midwifery unit and praising the facility as a “gem of a hospital and a state and national leader when it comes to maternity care.”

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The six-bill minibus package, which funds the federal government through Sept. 30, was passed by the House on Friday and the Senate two hours after a partial government shutdown took effect.