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(LifeSiteNews) — Manchester School District (MSD) in New Hampshire used federal taxpayer dollars meant for COVID-19 relief to hold a LGBT “pride” event featuring a drag performance, according to documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The DCNF reported that MSD is holding a “pride” event on June 2, as it has done since 2018, which is advertising a “Photo Booth, swag, food, entertainment and drag, LGBTQ+ affirming organizations, cake and more! Come as an ally or part of the queer community, we will love you either way!”

This year, however, the district is helping pay for it using $4,000 from the pool that the city of Manchester received under the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), a $1.9 trillion package enacted in 2021. The package was billed as meant to help Americans recover from the effects of the global COVID pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns via financial assistance to struggling Americans and businesses, reopening schools, distributing medical supplies, etc.

However, the bill was panned at the time for including financial support for far more divisive causes such as abortion, and now LGBT “pride.” The $4,000 includes $500 to pay drag performers and $500 for “pride” decorations and merchandise, as well as “equipment that is sustainable and durable” for future pride events.

“As with other years, this is an after-school, extra-curricular, opt-in event,” responded district superintendent Jennifer Gillis to the DCNF. “In prior years, it’s been well-attended, including students, families and members of the West Side community. This year, the group organizing the event applied for and received a Community Event and Activation Grant from American Rescue Plan Act funds through the city of Manchester. Although this is a school event, the district and partner organizations are working to help support the school as needed.”

Across the nation, controversy has exploded in recent years over schools promoting LGBT ideology through “pride” events, politicized classroom instruction, and the adoption of books that feature sexual themes and activity, often in graphic detail and with pornographic imagery depicting specific sex acts. The issue, along with the promotion of ideological messages in taxpayer-funded education, has fueled a parent backlash credited for Republican gains in states like Florida and Virginia, whose current respective governors have taken leading roles in fighting back.

Meanwhile, the MSD incident highlights the extent to which, critics say, the massive amounts of federal COVID spending under the Biden and Trump administrations were exploited by special interests for purposes unrelated to the pandemic.

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