A crowd of drag queens, drag kings, and their allies held a march to the Kennedy Center and a rally in front of the arts institution March 8. The march was in response to President Donald Trump's recent takeover of the Kennedy Center, and his remarks attacking the LGBTQIA+ community.
Trump has fired the former leadership of the institution and made himself chairman of the organization's board, where he vowed to ban drag shows and "woke programming."
The event began at Washington Circle, where one of the organizers, drag king Lord Henry spoke to the crowd: 鈥淲e demand that the Kennedy Center Board reinstate queer programming, including but not limited to drag-oriented workshops and shows and any other equity and DEI initiatives at the Kennedy Center,鈥� Lord Henry said. 鈥淲e want to force Congress to drop the multiple attempts at criminalizing gender non-conformity, including Trump鈥檚 executive order conflating sex and gender and the attack on drag artists through budget amendments, denying funds to organizations supporting and protecting this queer art form.鈥�
The group then marched half a mile to the Kennedy Center, where they held a rally.
Among the performers who spoke was drag queen Tara Hoot, who has performed at the Kennedy Center: "A man who hasn't even stepped foot inside of there has no business deciding what art is or isn't. How shameful, amoral, and weak it is for this president to demonize a marginalized population to attack a veteran arts institution. They are trying to take over the Kennedy Center to stop our stories from being heard, but we will never stop telling our stories. Because our stories are stories of love, stories of family, stories of overcoming, stories of joy, stories of hardship, and stories of redemption. Our queer stories are American stories."
Other speakers included artists Blaq Dinamyte and Mx.Noir.
Following Trump's takeover, a number of artists have distanced themselves from the institution by cancelling their engagements at the institution, including the hit musical Hamilton (which was cancelled by creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and producer Jeffrey Seller) and comedian Issa Rae. The Kennedy Center has also cancelled a World Pride concert that would have featured the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, D.C., the post-Broadway engagement of Eureka Day (about anti-vaxxers), and a tour of a children's musical Finn, which is about a shark but has been considered a metaphor for the LGBTQIA+ experience.
In addition to the protest, there is a petition from the advocacy group Qommittee, which calls for Kennedy Center donors to suspend funding until artistic independence is restored. has received almost 40,000 signatures.
Said Qommittee president Blaq Dinamyte at the March 8 event: "They target drag because we are liberation. Our art makes a world where you can be who you are鈥攚hoever that is. We are a threat to governments that want to control how we live and express ourselves. Drag performers have always been at the front lines. Here in D.C., we're seeing this play out on federal property. These bans hit our communities first, but they never stop with us. And to the donors and supporters who fund the Kennedy Center鈥攜our money is now funding censorship. If you stand for artistic freedom, stop writing checks to institutions that ban artists and start supporting those of us who've been silenced and pushed off stage!"
