The ACLU and four non-profit theater companies filed a lawsuit Thursday, challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order that requires National Endowment for the Arts grant applicants to comply with his “gender ideology.”
To be eligible for federal grant funding now, applicants must state that they will not “promote gender ideology,” per Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order. The president’s decree made it so America only technically observes two genders: male and female, thus putting non-binary and transgender people at risk.
Rhode Island Latino Arts, National Queer Theater, The Theater Offensive and the Theatre Communications Group are the lead plaintiffs in the suit, filed by the ACLU. These theaters have all received funding from the NEA for various projects regarding gender expression in the past, but because of the new regulations are now being excluded.
“This gag on artists’ speech has had a ripple effect across the entire art world, from Broadway to community arts centers,” Vera Eidelman, senior staff attorney at the ACLU, said. “Grants from the NEA are supposed to be about one thing: artistic excellence. Blocking eligibility for artists because they express a message the government doesn’t like runs directly counter to the NEA’s purpose, the First Amendment’s prohibition on viewpoint-based regulation and the role of art in our society.”
The organizations argue that the new regulations contradict the NEA’s previous criteria of “artistic excellence and artistic merit.”
“Because [these organizations] seek to affirm transgender and nonbinary identities and experiences in the projects for which they seek funding, Plaintiffs are effectively barred by the ‘gender ideology’ certification and prohibition (together, ‘gender ideology prohibition’) from receiving NEA grants on artistic merit and excellence grounds,” the suit reads. “Some of their proposed work appears to be ineligible for NEA funding under the new ‘gender ideology’ prohibition, even though similar work has been funded in the past.”
The suit goes on to say that the NEA administers tens of millions of dollars from Congress each year in arts funding, but now those grants will exclude several diverse stories from being told.
The New York-based National Queer Theater celebrates LGBTQ theater artists. The non-profit intends to apply for funding for the Criminal Queerness Festival, which will feature new works from playwrights from countries where queerness is illegal or dangerous, a festival they have hosted since 2019.
“We created Criminal Queerness to give a home to writers who face criminalization or censorship in their own country,” said Adam Odsess-Rubin, founding artistic director of the NQT. “It is a cruel irony that we may now be ineligible for funding because our so-called ‘gender ideology’ is being targeted by the U.S. government. These new requirements threaten the expression of not just our organization, but artists around the world whose identities have been criminalized.”
Theatre Communications Group is the national organization for theatre that serves over 600 member theaters and affiliate organizations nationwide. TCG reaches over 1 million theatre professionals, students and audience members each year through its programs and services. But now, many of TCG’s theaters across the country are at risk of having their federal funding stripped away.
“TCG stands in full support of the NEA’s mission to create art that sustains, strengthens and nurtures the diverse fabric of our country,” Emilya Cachapero, co-executive director of National and Global Programming at TCG, said. “However, efforts to block theatres from receiving NEA funding are a direct attempt to stifle artistic expression and undermine the essential role theatre plays in American society.”
The ACLU wants either a preliminary injunction or a temporary restraining order ahead of the March 24 grant application deadline.
This is not Trump’s first attack on the arts. The president has also assumed the role as chairman of the Kennedy Center, the national performing arts center in D.C. He fired sitting president Deborah Rutter and replaced billionaire donor David Rubenstein as chairman.
Since the president has assumed leadership, several artists have publicly stated they will not perform at the respected institution, including Issa Rae, Whoopi Goldberg and, most recently, a touring production of “Hamilton.”
“This latest action by Trump means it’s not the Kennedy Center as we knew it,” said the show’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda. “The Kennedy Center was not created in this spirit, and we’re not going to be a part of it while it is the Trump Kennedy Center. We’re just not going to be part of it.”
