US arts funding agency sued over Trump order targeting LGBTQ+ projects

Several arts organizations are suing the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) over its new requirements following Donald Trump’s executive order barring the use of federal funds for the promotion of “gender ideology”.

The groups, which are seeking funding for projects that support art about or are made by transgender and non-binary people, say they have in effect been unconstitutionally blocked from receiving grants from the agency that was built to promote artistic excellence, despite having received funds for similar projects in the past.

“Because they seek to affirm transgender and non-binary identities and experiences in the projects for which they seek funding, plaintiffs are effectively barred by the ‘gender ideology’ certification and prohibition from receiving NEA grants on artistic merit and excellence grounds,” says the lawsuit, filed on Thursday.

It goes on to say that the NEA’s gender ideology prohibition goes against the agency’s governing statute and “violates the first and fifth amendments by imposing a vague and viewpoint-based restriction on artists’ speech”.

The lawsuit argues that Congress had already made clear when creating the NEA that the only criteria for judging applications were “artistic excellence and artistic merit”.

The groups are being represented in the litigation by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

“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 in a statement. “Grants from the NEA are supposed to be about one thing: artistic excellence.

During his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order directing that federal funds “shall not be used to promote gender ideology”. The order is titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”.

The Trump administration’s rollbacks of LGBTQ+ rights have since greatly affected the arts world. Last month, Trump named himself the chair of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC after accusing it of hosting drag shows that are “specifically targeting our youth”.