Applicants must attest that they will not “promote gender ideology” in accordance with executive order of President Trump
Artists and theater groups have today filed a lawsuit challenging a new certification requirement for National Endowment for the Arts’ grants that requires applicants to attest that they will not “promote gender ideology” in order to be eligible for funding, and 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.
CASE PAGE: Rhode Island Latino Arts v. National Endowment for the Arts
The suit was filed in the U.S. 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 and 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.
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 (TCG) is a national theatre organization that serves over 500 member theatres and affiliate organizations, as well as more than 3,500 individual members. TCG reaches over one 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, 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.
