ACLU, Theater Companies File Lawsuit Against National Endowment for the Arts
The ACLU has filed a lawsuit in conjunction with a number of artists and theater groups challenging a new grant requirement from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Per the new requirement, potential grant applicants must state that they will not 'promote gender ideology' as part of their project under consideration for funding. This requirement came after President Trump signed an executive order claiming male and female as the only two sexes and said that federal funds should be used to promote gender ideology.
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The lawsuit, filed by the ACLU on behalf of Rhode Island Latino Arts, National Queer Theater, The Theater Offensive and the Theatre Communications Group, argues that this funding requirement from the NEA violates the First Amendment, the Administrative Procedure Act and the Fifth Amendment.
The ACLU is asking for a preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order before the grant application deadline on March 24.
'This gag on artists' speech has had a ripple effect across the entire art world, from Broadway to community arts centers,' said Vera Eidelman, senior staff attorney at the ACLU. '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.'
Hundreds of theater artists had previously sent the NEA a letter calling on the organization to stop following orders from President Trump and remove restrictions on awarding grants to projects that promote diversity or gender ideology.
Per the new regulations, an applicant is also not allowed to operate any programs promoting 'diversity, equity and inclusion' programs.
Among the parties to the lawsuit, Rhode Island Latino Arts had planned to apply for NEA funding to back a production of Faust that may have featured a nonbinary actor or a storytelling program which has previously included discussions of LGBTQ topics. The theater company is changing its project to so it could still receive funding.
National Queer Theater in New York plans to apply for funding for the Criminal Queerness Festival, a theater festival that has been ongoing since 2019 and features work from playwrights from countries where queerness is illegal or dangerous.
'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 National Queer Theater. '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.'
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