Theater Groups & ACLU File Lawsuit Over National Endowment For The Arts’ New Grant Restrictions On Gender Ideology

deadline.com:

The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit on behalf of four arts and theater organizations challenging new restrictions placed on federal grants by the National Endowment for the Arts to comply with President Donald Trump‘s executive order prohibiting promotion of gender ideology.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Rhode Island, contends that the new restrictions violate the First and Fifth Amendments, and are contrary to the NEA’s governing statute.

Read the ACLU lawsuit against the National Endowment for the Arts. The NEA also is requiring grant recipients to certify their understanding that “federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology.” “Because they seek to affirm transgender and nonbinary identities and experiences in the projects for which they seek funding, Plaintiffs are effectively barred by the ‘gender ideology’ certification and prohibition (together, “gender ideology prohibition”) from receiving NEA grants on artistic merit and excellence grounds,” the ACLU said in its complaint. “Some of their proposed work appears to be ineligible for NEA funding under the new ‘gender ideology’ prohibition, even though similar work has been funded in the past.

Moreover, the vagueness of the prohibition requires them to guess as to what if anything they can create, produce, or promote that addresses themes of gender, or that affirms the identities of all people regardless of their gender identity.” The organizations filing the lawsuit include Rhode Island Latino Arts, whoch has previously received NEA funding; National Queer Theater Inc., which was awarded grants in 2023 and 2024 for its Crimina Queerness Festiva; the Theater Offensive, which has received six grants previously; and Theatre