The Kennedy Centre in Washington DC has cancelled a week’s worth of World Pride events celebrating LGBTQ+ communities, amid President Donald Trump‘s purge of the centre’s leadership and being installed as the centre’s new chairman.
Multiple artists and producers involved in the centre’s Tapestry of Pride, which was planned for 5-8 June, said their events had been quietly cancelled or transferred to other venues.
Washington’s Capital Pride Alliance disassociated itself from the Kennedy Centre in response to the cancelled events.
“We are a resilient community, and we have found other avenues to celebrate,” the alliance’s deputy director June Crenshaw said. “We are finding another path to the celebration … but the fact that we have to manoeuvre in this way is disappointing.”
The cancellations come in the wake of big changes at the Kennedy Centre, including Trump’s firing both the president and chairman in early February. Trump replaced most of the board with loyalists, who subsequently elected him the new chairman of the institution.
The World Pride event is held every two years and this year’s event runs from 17 May – 8 June with performances and celebrations planned across the nation’s capital. But concerns arose about what kind of reception attendees will receive due to Trump administration policies targeting trans people and comments about Kennedy Centre drag performances.
“I know that D.C. as a community will be very excited to be hosting World Pride, but I know the community is a little bit different than the government,” said Michael Roest, founder and director of the International Pride Orchestra, which had its performance at the Kennedy Centre cancelled just days after Trump’s took control of the institution.
Roest said he received a one-sentence email from a Kennedy Centre staffer saying that they “are no longer able to advance your contract at this time.”
“They went from very eager to host to nothing,” he said. “We have not since heard a word from anybody at the Kennedy Centre, but that’s not going to stop us.”
