Void of Truth: RI ACLU sues Trump Administration over gender ideology prohibitions in arts grants

"I’m having a hard time understanding what art looks like without diversity, equity, inclusion, and the participation of the LGBTQ community," I said.

Left to Right: Kristy DuBois, executive director of the Choreography Project; Emilya Cachapero, co-executive director of National and Global Programming at TCG; Jess Ducey, board co-chair of National Queer Theater; Giselle Byrd, executive director of The Theater Offensive; ACLU of Rhode Island cooperating attorney Lynette Labinger; and Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU of Rhode Island.

[Note: This story was updated at 8:20 pm on Friday, March 7, 2025. See update in comments below.]

Today, artists and theater groups have filed a lawsuit challenging a new certification requirement for National Endowment for the Arts grants. The new requirement requires applicants to attest that they will not “promote gender ideology” to be eligible for funding. It blocks any projects that “promote gender ideology” from getting an award. The lawsuit calls the new requirement “an unlawful and unconstitutional exercise of executive power that has sowed chaos in the funding of arts projects across the United States, causing grievous irreparable harm” to artists and art organizations.

The suit was filed in the United States District Court of Rhode Island by attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Rhode Island cooperating attorney Lynette Labinger, and David Cole on behalf of four named plaintiffs: Rhode Island Latino Arts (RILA); The Theater Offensive (TTO); National Queer Theater (NQT); and the Theatre Communications Group (TCG).

In January 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that directs that “[f]ederal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology.” The lawsuit argues that the NEA’s implementation of that order violates the First Amendment by singling out a particular viewpoint for a ban on federal arts funding. It is unconstitutionally vague by failing to adequately define what it means to “promote gender ideology.” The suit further alleges a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act’s prohibition on “arbitrary and capricious” federal agency actions, and that the certification requirement/gender ideology prohibition exceeds NEA’s statutory authority since the statute expressly limits the agency’s review of applications to their artistic merit and excellence.

Here’s the video:

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I asked some questions about art:

Steve Ahlquist: I’m having a hard time understanding what “art” looks like without diversity, equity, inclusion, and the participation of the LGBTQ community.

Giselle Byrd, executive director of The Theater Offensive: It would be void of truth. As I said earlier, our community has created cultural movements that have defined our American history, which is currently and actively being rewritten. When you ask, "What will it look like?" It will be void of truth because there are perspectives and dynamics that each of our organizations bring into our artistic sphere. You will start seeing the lack of folks coming into museums because they no longer see their truth reflected in the artwork. People will not be coming to see plays and musicals because those shows no longer reflect their livelihood and humanity.

A lot of people, I think, are forgetting that while this order not to promote gender ideology is a harsh line in the sand, it is just the beginning. It starts here and then it starts permeating and moving through different spheres. Some of your most beloved pieces - such as Kinky Boots or La Cage aux Folles - will no longer be allowed to be seen or shared. We know there has been a takeover of the Kennedy Center solely around the basis of drag artistry, which is prominent in our culture. It has defined how we view work. People have won artistic merit awards - Tony Awards - for sharing these narratives, and without that, we are losing the truth of the people who inhabit this stolen, indigenous, land.

Steve Ahlquist: Will we see content constrictions as well—that is, will people put out less confrontational material to stay within these new NEA guidelines?

Jess Ducey, board co-chair of National Queer Theater: You might. In our case, the National Queer Theater, we’re applying anyway, with the caveat that we can’t not promote gender ideology. It hasn’t been described, but our existence is arguably doing that. But if other theaters have a range of programming and something doesn’t fall into that category, they’ll maybe submit for another thing. So we could see trends over time where if you can’t fund that queer work - that work remains in the very low budget, very indie, scrappy space where people make it.

Giselle Byrd: I agree with you that it’s embedded in the name, and ours is The Theater Offensive. We started in 1989 in response to the HIV/AIDs crisis. As an arts organization, we fought against the social injustices where so many young, beautiful artists were lost to something still an epidemic in this country. We see that it will continue, especially with the loss of USAID. So there will be constrictions for some people, but for other orgs that can continue to do the work and push forward and fight, we will. Because as I said earlier, these stories are our truths. They do not disappear.

I’m going to ask you a question. Have you ever spoken to a ghost?

Steve Ahlquist: No.

Giselle Byrd: You are. I do not exist according to this administration. I’m a Black trans woman.

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In the case of Rhode Island Latino Arts – a nonprofit organization that celebrates and supports visual art, music, theater, and more from the Latino community – it planned to apply for NEA funding either for a production of “Faust,” for which it considered casting a nonbinary actor, or for a storytelling program, previous iterations of which included discussions of LGBTQ topics. Due to the new NEA requirements, RILA is changing its project to ensure it does not run afoul of the certification and prohibition.

The Theater Offensive is a Boston-based theater company with a mission to present liberating art by, for, and about queer and trans people of color. It wants to apply for funding for an original play entitled “Smoke,” written by a transgender playwright and addressing the complexities of trans life at a turning point in the fight for their human rights in the 1960s. TTO has received six grants from the NEA in recent years.

National Queer Theater is a New York-based theater collective that celebrates LGBTQ theater artists. They intend to apply for funding for the Criminal Queerness Festival, a theater festival featuring work from playwrights from countries where queerness is illegal or dangerous. NQT has hosted the festival since 2019 and has received NEA grants for it in the past. The festival was also recently the winner of a prestigious Obie Award.

Theatre Communications Group is a national theatre organization serving over 500 member theatres, affiliate organizations, and more than 3,500 individual members. TCG reaches over one million theatre professionals, students, and audience members annually through its programs and services. Many of TCG’s member theatres across the country rely on federal funding to sustain their work, and some have been deterred from applying for NEA funding because of the certification requirement.

The lawsuit describes how all of the plaintiffs are left to speculate as to what the ban on “promoting gender ideology” actually means. RILA notes that is forced to guess as to whether it prohibits allowing a transgender, queer, or nonbinary individual to participate in NEA-funded programming, including any mention of these identities in RILA’s work, or including any fictional characters who are trans, nonbinary, or queer. Given the lack of clarity, RILA fears that even describing itself as an organization that supports transgender, nonbinary, and queer artists might run afoul of the “gender ideology” restriction.

The ACLU is asking for a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction against the agency’s implementation of the executive order before the grant application deadline of March 24, and a declaration that the NEA’s certification requirement and prohibition on funding any projects that “promote gender ideology” is unconstitutional.

Statements:

Giselle Bird: I'm the executive director of The Theater Offensive based in Boston, Massachusetts, where our mission is to present liberating art by, for, and about queer and trans people of color that transcends artistic boundaries, celebrates cultural abundance, and dismantles oppression. We welcome all into our sacred spaces where our humanity is the same as yours. All of our work, most of which has been NEA funded, reflects all of our humanity. I'm a proud Black trans woman from the South who is the daughter of an exceptional woman who went to segregated schools, the granddaughter of loving people who survived the Jim Crow era, and I am the descendant of slaves. I'm also the first Black trans woman to lead a regional theater in the United States.

In this moment I not only carry with me the voices of my family, but the voices of my ancestors and trancestors whose lives and stories have often gone untold due to the ongoing epidemic of violence and oppression towards our community.

Now, I can't truly begin without acknowledging the land upon which all of us stand and are in at this moment. This country was founded upon indigenous land that was stolen from its inhabitants. Rhode Island sits upon the land of Pequot, Nitmuck, Niantic, Wampanoag, and specifically, here in Providence, the Naragansett people.

At The Theater Offensive we affirm that it's important to understand and honor the history of the indigenous land that we occupy while recognizing that this acknowledgement is insufficient and doesn't undo legacies of violence and displacement of indigenous people. As settlers in these lands, we must confront our own contradictions and violence and work in solidarity with and hold the dualities of all oppressed peoples. We ask you to join this practice of uncovering such truth as we pave a future of decolonization and reconciliation.

Now, as y'all are well aware, our country is in a fragile state. We are seeing that there is no liberty and justice for all. It is for the select elite white few. Since January 20th, we have been replete with executive orders that are meant to confuse, disrupt, and deprive us of the very liberation that our ancestors and trancestors fought for. As I watched the recent Presidential address to Congress, I didn't sit in fear or disdain. I do not succumb to mediocrity and I will not start now. Instead, my radical optimism viewed the remarks and turned off my television with a sense of clarity.

One major moment that stuck out to me was the closing remark, stating that we are going to forge the freest, most advanced, most dynamic, and most dominant civilization ever to exist on the face of this earth. If that is what our president decrees, who are we to not comply? But on our own terms. If creating the freest civilization on this earth is the goal, that calls for the liberation of all people in all spaces, including artistic ones where we must fight against any and all forms of systemic oppression - which is why we are gathered here today and I'm honored to be here.

The National Endowment for the Arts' purpose is to advance opportunities for arts participation and practice, to foster and sustain an environment in which the arts benefit everyone in the United States, but their latest project requirement stating that federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology is a direct departure from its mission. The beautiful trans, non-binary, and gender expansive community is not a monolith. We have always been here, defining cultural moments and movements for centuries on end, and we'll continue to do so.

At The Theater Offensive, we have a longstanding history of NEA funding, which has supported trans, non-binary, and gender expansive narratives and our mission. We will be applying in this grant cycle, but we will not comply with illegal requirements, which is why we have filed this lawsuit.

I look to our queer aesthetics - which is our moral compass at The Theater Offensive -that say that we take care of ourselves, we take care of each other, and we take care of our people. That is why I'm here today. These actions by the NEA are embedding the continued attack on our trans, non-binary, and gender expansive siblings, and it is hindering our ability to tell our stories through an artistic lens, creating censorship of the art that we create, and essentially erasing our stories from access to funding.

We do not comply with this, nor will we sit idly by as this administration continues to reign with the crown of oppression over our community. This is a direct violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, First Amendment, and Fifth Amendment. We, as artists, are a reflection of the times and it is our duty to remind people of the past, acknowledge the present, and chart a way for the future. We have told our stories through a pandemic during which none of us could fathom a return to normal, a period of immense racial reckoning throughout the world, seeing injustice at the forefront. We saw the unjust murders of xxx and George Floyd and learned about countless others - and some that had gone unnamed for so many years. We have seen war and genocide on our television screens and learned about those that don't even get airtime. We are seeing censorship at its peak and this moment is no exception.

So in this moment ,amidst my radical optimism, I look to our aesthetic of edge, queering, and ambidextrous, which states that taking flight requires standing on the edge of the precipice. The leap into the murkiness of the unknown is und and fertile, and while the path of this lawsuit is unknown, one thing is definite: Our battle cry is as loud as ever. It is often said that we have to weather the storm, but I strongly believe that the storm has to weather us.

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Jess Ducey, board co-chair of National Queer Theater: I'm a queer and non-binary writer, producer, fundraiser, and occasional clown. I also have the great honor of serving as the co-chair of the board of National Queer Theater. We are a theater collective dedicated to celebrating the brilliance of queer artists and providing a home for unheard storytellers and activists. One of our flagship programs is the Annual Criminal Queerness Festival, which will celebrate its seventh year in June.

We created the festival to be a beacon of artistic freedom, and a place for trans and queer artists to share their stories free from fear, censorship and violence. Over the years, the festival has featured works by emerging artists from more than a dozen countries that criminalize homosexuality. Even more importantly, it's become a vibrant community celebrating the rich tapestry of queer identity and experience even as we come under increasing attack here at home.

In addition to funding from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and Partnership with the City Council, the JKW Foundation, NYC Pride, and the Terrance McNally Foundation, NQT was awarded NEA grants in 2023 and 2024 to support the festival - and we have been offered a third grant for the upcoming June, 2025 festival - but we don't know if that will be awarded. In January of this year, NQT received an Obie award for the Criminal Queerness Festival, the Obies, for the lawyers and other non-theatre nerds among us today, honor the highest caliber of the off and off Broadway theater. To have the artistic merit of our work recognized by the NEA, not once, not twice, but three times - was thrilling for us and I'd be lying if I pretended we didn't squeal when we found out about the Obie. Despite what you may have heard, queer and trans people are also human and we too appreciate external validation, but that validation pales in comparison to the transcendent rush of sitting in the audience next to someone seeing their identity and experience on stage for the very first time.

That's what drives all of our work at NQT - a steadfast belief that stories matter. When we are scared, hurt, lost, or sad, art reminds us that we're not alone. It can teach us the words for how we feel and who we are. Art allows us to imagine new worlds and futures. It helps us preserve our cultures and traditions, even in the face of oppression. Art gives us hope and what could be more powerful? If our stories didn't matter, artists wouldn't find themselves silenced over and over throughout history.

While ordinarily I'd rather be writing, color coding a budget, or devouring a draft of a new play, I'm honored to be here today standing in solidarity with my fellow trans, queer, and gender nonconforming artists.

I want to thank and acknowledge the trans elders and ancestors who paved the way for us to be here today. Thanks to their bravery, I know that we have the ability to shape a more just and beautiful world. In some ways, I'm flattered that our mere existence outside the binary is capable of causing such a fuss. It is an acknowledgement of our power. I'm fortunate enough to also call Otto a New Zealand home and I'd like to share a Maori proverb that I turn to for strength in challenging times: What is the most important thing in the world?

It is people. It is people. It is people.

When we talk about ensuring that our trans and queer young people grow up to be happy and healthy trans and queer adults, we often reassure them that it gets better, but that's not true. It doesn't get better. We make it better. Whether a small action or a grand gesture, caring for the most vulnerable amongst us - it is a choice that we can make every single day. Affirming queer and trans rights is not an ideology or a box to tick - or not tick, in this case - it is a means to honor the people at the heart of everything that we do as National Queer Theater. It is our reason for existing. To my fellow queer and trans artists out there, as long as you keep telling your stories, we'll keep fighting to share them. We need you now more than ever.

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Emilya Cachapero, co-executive director of National and Global Programming at TCG: I am not standing here alone. Standing with me are my partners. LaTeshia Ellerson, who is the co-executive director of National Engagement; Alisha Tonsic, our co-executive director of National Operations and Business Development, and our full board and our full staff are standing with me and with us on this. Theater has always been about connection, bringing people together to share stories and imagine new possibilities. Right now, that purpose is being challenged. The recent restriction on NEA funding threatens artistic expression and limits the stories many theaters can tell.

This restriction forces applicants to agree that they will not promote what is being referred to as gender ideology in order to receive federal funding. This restriction undermines the rights of theaters to tell stories that reflect our diverse communities. That's why today TCG is joining this lawsuit led by the ACLU alongside the National Queer Theater, Rhode Island, Latino Arts and The Theater Offensive to challenge this restriction. We know the power of collective action, which is why we've joined our co-plaintiffs in this fight.

Theaters should not have to choose between funding and artistic freedom. TCG's mission is to lead for a just and thriving theater ecology. There is no better way for us to live our mission than to stand in solidarity with artists and theaters facing threats. TCG serves the national not-for-profit theater community, and is composed of theaters, individuals, communities, colleges, universities, and other affiliates. We are a membership organization, but our programs and services embrace and serve the entire theater ecology - from productions in the smallest black box venues to afterschool student workshops in caffiitoriums, to storefront theaters, to the largest houses with more than a thousand seats.

We embrace and serve those working in our theaters whose identities are not monolithic, but all genders, races, ethnicities, ages, religions, immigrants, and those US born, all of them deserve to be recognized, celebrated, and supported. TCG has long advocated for increased NEA funding and policies that foster inclusion and that will not stop. We still deeply believe in the NEA's mission and continue to support annual appropriations for the NEA. We want the NEA to be the best version of itself - a champion of theaters engaging deeply with their communities without interference.

At its best, NEA funds have supported meaningful projects that may not have otherwise happened. In communities from Honolulu to Juneau, from Tucson to Montgomery, to here in Providence. And access to this core support must continue. I'm repeating this to make sure our friends and colleagues at the NEA hear this - hopefully they will hear this, see this, know this - we want the NEA to be the best version of itself - the way Congress intended it to be when they established it in 1965. If one of us is attacked, we are all endangered. Our co=plaintiffs have taken a courageous step forward in filing this lawsuit, knowing full well the risks of standing on the front lines. Their leadership deserves TCG's support and their artistry deserves NEA support.

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Kristy DuBois, executive director of the Choreography Project, a nonprofit based in Rhode Island dedicated to supporting and uplifting dance artists in our community: Our mission is built on the belief that arts should be accessible to all regardless of background, identity, or resources. That mission is now under direct threat. Executive Order 14173 is an attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion. It imposes restrictions that undermine federal funding for arts organizations like ours, organizations that champion equity, access, and representation in the arts. Under these new restrictions, the very nature of our work may render us ineligible for crucial funding from the National Endowment for the Arts - a lifeline for many arts organizations. The intent behind this order is clear. It aims to silence historically excluded voices and restrict opportunities for artists from diverse backgrounds. This is not just an arts issue, it’s a civil rights issue.

Dara Capley, a dancer whose choreography career was launched by the Choreography Project recently told us a lot of the art - specifically the dance that we see today - does not represent the actual population. Until we diversify, who gets to tell stories and share their vision? Art will continue to die because people will stop being interested.

Here in Rhode Island, this executive order is a direct threat to artists, choreographers, and organizations like ours that rely on federal funding to sustain their work. The Choreography Project provides emerging and established artists with opportunities to create, collaborate, and share their voices. Without support, many will lose access to funding platforms and mentorship that will allow them to thrive. One choreographer in our residency explored themes of belonging and human connection, bringing together dancers from diverse backgrounds. Another artist used their choreography to challenge outdated norms, redefining who gets to lift whom, who takes up space, and how dance can be more inclusive.

Their work gave dancers a new sense of strength and agency in their own bodies. This kind of artistic innovation is only possible when artists are given the freedom and resources to tell their stories. Without organizations like ours, artists like them who introduce fresh perspectives to the Rhode Island arts scene may lose the opportunity to develop and showcase their work. Dancers who train for years rely on programs like ours to bridge the gap between education and professional experience.

Without support, young artists will have fewer chances to train, perform, and establish careers. The impact extends beyond individuals. The arts are a major economic driver in Rhode Island, supporting theaters, event spaces, and small businesses. If arts organizations lose their funding, it won't just affect performers. It will impact the entire creative economy.

When we talk about diversity in the arts, we aren't talking about a political agenda. We are talking about real people - choreographers who use their work to explore identity, dancers who rely on residencies to access professional opportunities, and audiences who benefit from its thriving and inclusive arts community. If this executive order stands, we will see a chilling effect across Rhode Island where artists and organizations feel pressure to strip away work focused on inclusion just to survive. That is not just a loss for the arts, that is a loss for all of us.

Choreography remains a field where men, particularly cisgender men, hold a disproportionate share of leadership and creative opportunities despite the dance force being majority women and non-binary artists. Let's talk about the numbers: In the 2022-2023 season, only 32% of works programed by the 150 largest United States ballet and classically inspired companies were choreographed by women. And at the largest ballet companies, that number dropped to just 14.9%. That's why we stand with the Rhode Island ACLU in this lawsuit.

We may not be on today's filing, but we are committed to joining this fight. We're prepared to provide any help we can in the progression of this lawsuit. This is bigger than one lawsuit. This is about ensuring that every artist, regardless of race, gender, disability, or background, has the right to tell their story, to share their art, and be supported in doing so. We need public support. We need our community to speak out. We encourage everyone to stay informed. Contact your representatives and support arts organizations facing this threat. Most importantly, we need to remind those in power that our nation's cultural and artistic legacy depends on inclusion, not exclusion. We will not be silent and we will not stop fighting for the future of the arts.