PROVIDENCE, R.I.: Artists and theatre groups are challenging a new certification requirement and funding prohibition for National Endowment for the Arts’ grant applications that requires applicants to attest that they will not “promote gender ideology” in order to be eligible for funding, and blocks any projects that reasonably appear to “promote gender ideology” from getting an award.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Rhode Island, David Cole, and Lynette Labinger, cooperating counsel for the ACLU-RI, filed the suit in the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island on behalf of Rhode Island Latino Arts (RILA); National Queer Theater (NQT), based in New York City; The Theater Offensive (TTO), based in Boston; and the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for U.S. theatres and the publisher of American Theatre.
The suit argues that the new certification requirement and funding prohibition violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the First Amendment, and the Fifth Amendment. The ACLU is asking for a preliminary injunction before the grant application deadline on March 24.
In January 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that directs that “[f]ederal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology,” a move clearly targeted at transgender and gender-nonconforming people and any efforts to advance their rights or flourishing. On Feb. 7, the NEA’s Assurance of Compliance page was amended to include the language of this executive order, as well as one targeting DEI programs and one “ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity.” The last two orders have since had preliminary injunctions filed against them, effectively releasing NEA applicants of the requirement to sign on to them, but the “gender ideology” guideline remains.
“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, in a statement. “Grants from the NEA are supposed to be about one thing: artistic excellence. Blocking eligibility for anyone who expresses 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 arts are foundational to Providence and to Rhode Island at large,” said Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU of Rhode Island, in a statement. “Requiring artists to sign a loyalty oath in exchange for funding is not what Congress intended for the endowment, nor is it in line with the First Amendment. We will continue to fight for the freedom of all artists to experiment and push boundaries, because we deserve a cultural sphere that is as diverse and as vibrant as our communities are.”
Rhode Island Latino Arts is a nonprofit organization that celebrates and supports visual art, music, theatre, and more from the Latino community. It planned to apply for NEA funding for either a production of Faust, for which it considered casting a nonbinary actor, or a storytelling program, previous iterations of which included discussions of LGBTQ topics. Due to the requirement, RILA is changing its project to ensure it does not run afoul of the certification and prohibition.
“Artistic expression is a fundamental right,” said Marta V. Martinez, executive director of Rhode Island Latino Arts, in a statement. “Our communities deserve to see art that reflects their experiences, and that challenges them to consider something new. All of our projects are designed to welcome and celebrate a diverse array of identities and experiences, especially those of recent immigrants and those from the Latinx and LGBTQ+ communities. That is the principle RILA was founded on, and we can’t be bullied into compromising our values.”
National Queer Theater is a New York-based theatre collective that celebrates LGBTQ theatre artists. They intend to apply for funding for the Criminal Queerness Festival, a theatre festival featuring work from playwrights from countries where queerness is illegal or dangerous, which 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 National Queer Theater, in a statement. “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.”
The Theater Offensive is a Boston-based theatre company with a mission to present liberating art by, for, and about queer and trans people of color. It is applying for funding for an original play titled Smoke, set against the backdrop of 1960s Washington, D.C. Smoke explores love, found family, motherhood, and healing, and reveals the complexities of trans life at a turning point in the fight for their human rights.
“There is no theatre community without the immense contributions of queer trans artists,” said Giselle Byrd, executive director of The Theater Offensive, in a statement. “This pledge from the NEA further attacks the rights and dignity of trans and nonbinary people, silencing our voices at a time when they are most needed. The power and purpose of art is to make us feel, to force us to think, to challenge our worldview, and to connect with people who are different from us. Censoring art means censoring what makes us human.”
Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, serves over 600 member theatres and affiliate organizations, as well as more than 3,500 individual members. TCG reaches over 1 million theatre professionals, students, and audience members each year through its programs and services. Many of TCG’s member theatres across the country rely on federal funding to sustain their work.
“Theatre is a vital tool for connecting us across identities and experiences,” said Emilya Cachapero, co-executive director of National and Global Programming at TCG, in a statement. “TCG stands in full support of the NEA’s mission to create art that sustains, strengthens, and nurtures the diverse fabric of our country. 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.”
Today’s filing can be found here.
