A series of gay pride concerts and other events have been quietly canceled at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.
The series of events, to have been labeled the “Tapestry of Pride,” were originally planned for dates between June 5 to 8 to celebrate “Pride Month,” but were quietly cancelled without fanfare, the Associated Press reported on Friday.
The cancellations spurred Washington’s Capital Pride Alliance to disassociate itself with the Kennedy Center.
June Crenshaw, deputy director of Capital Pride Alliance, told the AP that some of the events have been moved to other venues and complained that “the fact that we have to maneuver in this way is disappointing.”
Some of the events moved to other venues includes the display of the “AIDS Memorial Quilt,” a drag queen story time reading, and a concert by the International Pride Orchestra.
Monica Alford, the organizer of a drag queen brunch, was discouraged over the cancellation of her event, which she described as “meant to be family-friendly, just like the drag brunch was family-friendly and classy and sophisticated.”
“We’re doing our community a disservice — not just the queer community but the entire community,” Alford said of the cancellation of her event.
The Kennedy Center has released no statements about these cancellations, but the moves to scale back on the Pride celebrations began almost immediately after Donald Trump fired Center president Deborah Rutter and announced that he intended to reorganize the performance venue.
The Trump team has made other changes at the Center, as well. In March, the Center’s entire “Social Impact” department was eliminated and its employees laid off.
At the last Kennedy Center board meeting, President Trump said he was “disappointed” with how the how the federal government-owned building looked although it underwent a $250 million expansion project in 2019.
“I’m very disappointed when I look around,” the 45th and 47th president said. “The bottom line: It has tremendous potential. And we’ll work with Congress — it’s a very public facility, and we’ll do what has to be done.”
“We’re going to fix it up,” President Trump added. “It’s really emblematic of our country.”
In February, leftists protested Trump’s changes to the Center by organizing a small protest that included “interpretive dances” and chants.
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