A slate of Pride Month events at the Kennedy Center has been quietly canceled amid President Trump’s dramatic overhaul of the Washington, DC, performing arts venue, according to organizers.
The events were part of the Kennedy Center’s “Tapestry of Pride” programming, which had been scheduled to coincide with this summer’s World Pride festival celebrating LGBTQ rights, the Associated Press reported on Friday.
A June 5 performance at the venue was abruptly canceled within days of Trump’s Feb. 7 Truth Social post announcing leadership changes at the cultural institution, Michael Roest, founder and director of the International Pride Orchestra, said.
“They went from very eager to host to nothing,” Roest said. “We have not since heard a word from anybody at the Kennedy Center, but that’s not going to stop us.”
Roest noted that he subsequently secured a venue in nearby Bethesda, Md., for his orchestra to play during Pride Month.
Monica Alford, the organizer of a 2024 Kennedy Center rooftop drag brunch, also said the center ceased communicating with her about a planned June 8 event shortly after Trump’s takeover.
The now-canceled event was “meant to be family-friendly, just like the drag brunch was family-friendly and classy and sophisticated,” Alford said.
“We’re doing our community a disservice — not just the queer community but the entire community,” she argued.
Washington’s Capital Pride Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to organizing LGBTQ pride festivities, has disassociated itself from the Kennedy Center in the wake of the cancellations.
“We are a resilient community, and we have found other avenues to celebrate,”June Crenshaw, deputy director of the alliance, said. “We are finding another path to the celebration … but the fact that we have to maneuver in this way is disappointing.”
Roest also indicated that absent “a very, very public statement of inclusivity from the administration,” he and other LGBTQ performers would likely no longer consider performing at the Kennedy Center.
In February, as part of an effort to make the Kennedy Center “GREAT AGAIN,” Trump removed several individuals from the center’s board of trustees and installed himself as the chairman.
The president, 78, argued that the old board members “do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture” and slammed previous LGBTQ-related programming that took place at the Kennedy Center.
“Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in February. “The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation. For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”
The Pride Month cancellations follow “Hamilton” producers Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeffrey Seller announcing in March that they pulled the plug on an upcoming run of shows of the hit Broadway musical at the Kennedy Center over Trump’s takeover of the performing arts venue.
The Kennedy Center did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
With Post wires
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