Theaters Sue the N.E.A. Over Trump's ‘Gender Ideology' Order

New York Times

06-03-2025

Several arts organizations sued the National Endowment for the Arts on Thursday, challenging its new requirement that grant applicants agree to comply with President Trump's executive orders by promising not to promote 'gender ideology.'
The groups that filed the suit have made or supported art about transgender and nonbinary people, and have received N.E.A. funding in the past. They say the new requirement unconstitutionally threatens their eligibility for future grants.
'Because they 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 from receiving N.E.A. grants on artistic merit and excellence grounds,' the lawsuit says.
The groups are being represented in the litigation by the American Civil Liberties Union, which said in the lawsuit that the N.E.A. rule 'has sowed chaos in the funding of arts projects across the United States.' After Mr. Trump began his second term, the N.E.A. said it would require grant applicants to agree 'that federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology,' which Mr. Trump said in an executive order includes 'the false claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa.'
The N.E.A. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The suit was filed in a federal court in Rhode Island on behalf of Rhode Island Latino Arts, which promotes art made by Latinos; the Theater Offensive, an organization in Boston that presents work 'by, for and about queer and trans people of color'; and National Queer Theater, a New York company best known for its Criminal Queerness Festival, which presents the work of international artists with roots in countries where their sexuality is criminalized or censored.
'The N.E.A. has been a very robust supporter of ours,' said Adam Odsess-Rubin, the founding artistic director of National Queer Theater, which received $20,000 from the N.E.A. in 2023, $25,000 in 2024, and has been scheduled to receive $20,000 this year. 'It's ironic for us to be asked to check a box saying we won't promote gender ideology; it doesn't make sense to us; it's not clear how it serves the American public at all, and, frankly, it's discriminatory."
Theater Communications Group, a national organization based in New York with 650 member theaters and affiliated organizations, is also among the plaintiffs.
Vera Eidelman, a lawyer at the A.C.L.U., said her organization would ask a judge to stop the new requirement before the next N.E.A. grant application deadline this month. The A.C.L.U. will argue that, by imposing a viewpoint-based restriction on grant applicants, the N.E.A. is violating both its statutory authority and the Constitution.
'There are serious questions about what the reaches of it are,' Ms. Eidelman said. 'Does it mean you can't cast someone who is nonbinary or transgender, or can't have a character who identifies as such? That you can't have a male character who dresses as a woman? So much art involves those themes, and has throughout history.'
The suit is part of a wave of legal challenges to executive actions by the Trump administration.
The N.E.A., in addition to demanding that grant applicants promise not to promote 'gender ideology,' had also required that applicants agree not to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in ways that violate anti-discrimination laws. But that requirement is currently on hold because of a preliminary injunction issued by a judge in Maryland.
The new compliance requirements have been prompting concern for many artists and arts institutions, and on Wednesday four leading American theaters — the Public Theater and New York Theater Workshop in New York, Long Wharf Theater in Connecticut, and Portland Center Stage in Oregon — issued a statement saying they would not agree to the new N.E.A. guidelines, and calling for them to be withdrawn.