During a Thursday (5 March) House Foreign Affairs Committee meeting to discuss national security through public diplomacy, Congressman Brad Sherman took some time to address criticism over US State Department funding for LGBTQ+ initiatives worldwide. Sherman, who represents California's 32nd congressional district, addressed his fellow House members, saying “It is said that the State Department provided $21,000 for drag show in Ecuador. Simply not true. There was a proposal. It didn't happen. If any of us is judged by the, stupidity of some of the proposals that take place. I have many, many crazy things that are proposed to me in my office. Sometimes by a Republican colleague.” Sherman then went on to address the previously hotly-debated subject of the ‘transgender opera’ that was funded, saying “Then there's this myth of thirty-four- $47,000 for a transgender opera. This was to support, ’As One’, an opera written in the United States that happens to have a transgender protagonist. ...