The International Pride Orchestra says it was summarily axed from performing at the Kennedy Center after President Donald Trump assumed control of the board running it, SFGate reported on Monday.
The orchestra, a nonprofit based in San Francisco that includes a number of drag performers and performs the work of queer composers including Leonard Bernstein, "began communicating with the Kennedy Center in September regarding a concert at the venue during the WorldPride festival, set to take place between May 17 and June 8. They settled on the date of June 4, and after a logistics Zoom call in early February with staff members of the center and DC Pride, the International Pride Orchestra sent over a rider to be included in a contract."
However, Trump "declared in a social media post that the venue would stop hosting 'DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA,' named himself chairman of the organization and fired multiple board members," according to the report.
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Then, on February 10, the Kennedy Center sent an email to the International Pride Orchestra which read, in its entirety, “We are not able to offer you a contract at this time.”
“No explanation — certainly we can read between the lines of what’s going on,” founding artistic director Michael Roest said to SFGATE."
Trump ran in part on a platform attacking the LGBTQ community, with a particular focus on transgender people and drag performances. Some of his first acts in office were to cut off any federally-funded educational institution that allows transgender people to play in sports leagues of their identified gender, and to partially revive his ban on transgender military service, both of which are already facing legal challenges.
