Repeat off

1

Repeat one

all

Repeat all

Gay administration official rages at American Idol for one bizarre reason
May 07 2025, 08:15

Gay administration official Ric Grenell, tasked with ushering in a “golden age” of the arts as executive director of the Kennedy Center, is mad about musicals.

Not as in crazy for them, although it’s likely the former ambassador to Germany’s taste in music runs to lavish 11 o’clock numbers. He’s a Log Cabin Republican, after all.

Related

Right-wing influencers may have been bribed to endorse Richard Grenell for secretary of state
He reportedly told people he wanted the position for years before Trump snubbed him for the role.

Instead, he’s upset the musical Hamilton ditched the Kennedy Center to protest the administration’s censorship of all things gay, diverse, equitable, and inclusive at the performing arts center on the Potomac.

Insights for the LGBTQ+ community

Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

In March, creator Lin-Manuel Miranda canceled a run of the show scheduled for the Kennedy Center in 2026. The production cited the president’s “takeover” of the “sacred” setting after Grenell’s Cats-loving boss fired the board and installed himself as chairman in February.

“Given the recent actions, our show simply cannot, in good conscience, participate and be a part of this new culture that is being imposed on the Kennedy Center,” said Hamilton’s lead producer Jeffrey Seller.

Several more artists scheduled for performances and others associated with the Kennedy Center cut ties, as well, among them musician Ben Folds, opera legend Renée Fleming, and Shonda Rhimes, the accomplished Hollywood writer, producer, and television executive.

Since then, Grenell has canceled a week’s worth of World Pride events scheduled for the center in June, defunded $2.5 million in DEI grants at the center, and scrapped the touring children’s musical Finn, whose lead character “loves sparkles and bright colors despite being a shark.”

Sounds like Grenell, who said promoting DEI at the Kennedy Center would be “criminal.”

“The American people need to know that @Lin_Manuel is intolerant of people who don’t agree with him politically,” Grenell posted without irony after Miranda pulled out. “It’s clear he and Sellers don’t want Republicans going to their shows.”

Others who don’t want Republicans going to their shows: the audience at a National Symphony Orchestra performance at the Kennedy Center in March, which booed Vice President JD Vance mercilessly when he entered the hall.

Now the onetime acting director of national intelligence in the final, chaotic days of the president’s first term sees conspiratorial forces at work in a decision by ABC to recruit Miranda as a mentor on American Idol — for musicals.

“Shame on you, @AmericanIdol,” Grenell posted to social on Monday. “Inviting @Lin_Manuel to be a mentor to young people 3 weeks after Lin pulled his show from the Kennedy Center because he can’t work with Republicans is an obvious move to support political intolerance. We need performers who perform for everyone. Not radicals who litmus test the audience’s voting history. Dumb move, @abc.”

The Grenell tweet
| Screenshot

Miranda, who had a hand in the soundtracks for Disney movie musicals Moana and Encanto, joins James Taylor, Josh Groban, Ashanti, and past winner Fantasia as a mentor this season. He’ll lend his expertise for a “two-night Disney celebration” on Idol and his inclusion was likely months in the planning.

Grenell, apparently on a first-name basis with the Hamilton creator, ended his post by tagging Brendon Carr, chairman of the FCC.

It was a less-than-subtle threat that ABC and parent company Disney would somehow pay for platforming a song-and-dance man who slighted the president.

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.


Comments (0)