(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) A recent hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee brought renewed attention to a taxpayer-funded initiative to make maps “more gay” by allowing visitors to pin LGPT hookup spots in central Europe and elsewhere.
Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., pressed Sarah B. Rogers, undersecretary of State for public diplomacy, on Thursday to explain the Biden-backed program “Queering the Maps,” which enables LGBT users to share stories about their romantic encounters.
“The platform provides an interface to collaboratively record the cartography of queer life —from park benches to the middle of the ocean — in order to preserve our histories and unfolding realities, which continue to be invalidated, contested, and erased,” according to the website. “From collective action to stories of coming out, encounters with violence to moments of rapturous love, Queering the Map functions as a living archive of queer life.”
For example, one pin at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. recounts that “on a spring break trip, i [sic] met the prettiest boy ever, i wish we could have gotten to know each other more.”
Another pin, on the White House lawn states, “Pence walked up to me and we kissed,we will never be alone ever again-orange.”
In addition to sexual trysts, users also are able to post anecdotes including their “coming out” memories and other miscellaneous milestones, even off-topic rants.
A pin near the White House asks, “what if we overthrew the government…. jk… unless?” and two others simply state, “F**k Trump.”
A land acknowledgement on its website explains that “Queering the Map was initiated on the unceded traditional lands of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation,” aka Montreal, Canada.
Despite the dubious benefit for U.S. taxpayers, the platform, which purports to be volunteer-moderated, reportedly benefited from a Fulbright–Hays research grant of over $72,000. The grant was awarded to Dragan Katarina Mikulin (pronouns ze/hir) “to conduct a geolinguistic ethnography of queer and trans Slovaks and Czechs.”
Rogers, who assumed her current State Department role in October, confirmed during the House hearing on Thursday that the State Department had funded the so-called research.
“You know, since the age of cartography, we’ve had pretty good maps, but maybe they weren’t gay enough,” she replied after Mast, the committee chair, puzzled incredulously over how the State Department had sought to turn the maps gay.
“…. I do understand that the maps that we were trying to make gay were, I think, of Czechia and Slovakia, so maybe those countries asked for it,” Rogers added. “I doubt it, but I don’t know.”
The exchange went viral, prompting Rogers to issue an apology to the former Soviet nations affected by the unsolicited DEI initiatives.
“Czechia and Slovakia are great countries. I’m sorry that my predecessors ‘queered’ your maps!” she wrote. “This is why future public diplomacy grants will be streamlined, accountable — and channeled toward real American interests, like free speech and sports diplomacy.”
Czechia and Slovakia are great countries. I’m sorry that my predecessors “queered” your maps! This is why future public diplomacy grants will be streamlined, accountable — and channeled toward real American interests, like free speech and sports diplomacy. https://t.co/6ZWJeyWqvi
— Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers (@UnderSecPD) March 6, 2026
Mast, for his part, urged Rogers to provide the names and receipts for the wasteful spending.
“We do have real things to work on in Congress, like what’s going on with the imminent threat of Iran, and it is embarrassing that we have to talk about the fact that things like this were funded,” he said. “…And would absolutely love to know the individuals specifically that were busy writing these grants, because they have no business receiving another paycheck from the people of the United States of America.”
Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.
