Democratic Senators hosted a Pride event at the Kennedy Center as a direct rebuke to the president’s takeover of the historic arts institution.

The Senators – John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) – hosted the event called Love is Love on Monday night. Produced by Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller, it included several LGBTQ+ musical numbers as well as four monologues from queer actors/playwrights.

Related

Pride is a celebration and a protest for Jack Miller
He will “march, storm, yell, scream, and shout to make my voice heard.”

The show took place at the Kennedy Center’s Justice Forum to protest the president’s takeover of the institution, along with his subsequent dismantling of its LGBTQ+ and other diverse programming.

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

While the senators reportedly reserved the space several weeks ago, they only announced it was a Pride event on Monday. Seller told the New York Times that Hickenlooper called it “guerrilla theater.”

“This is our way of reoccupying the Kennedy Center,” Seller said. “This is a form of saying, ‘We are here, we exist and you can’t ignore us.’ This is a protest, and a political act.”

Sen. Hickenlooper said the night was about the need to “continue to seek out the light” even in “our darkest hours.”

“Tonight, we honor the role that the freedom of expression and the theatrical arts play in continuing to expand LGBTQ rights in America,” he said.

Baldwin, who became the first out gay senator after she was first elected in 2012, added in a statement, “While this administration won’t say it, we will: To all LGBTQ members of our community, we see you, we respect you, and we are proud to celebrate you.”

Warren said the event was meant as a way of meeting bigotry “with resilience and joy.”

“Tonight, we’re celebrating that joy at the Kennedy Center,” she continued, “with artists and stage workers for a special performance. I’ll never stop fighting to make sure every single person is free to live exactly who they are.”

Performers included the DC Gay Men’s Chorus; Broadway stars like Jelani Remy, Brandon Uranowitz, and Javier Muñoz; and famed playwrights Tony Kushner and Harvey Fierstein, the latter of whom spoke out against the current administration for ostensibly banning his plays from the Kennedy Center, since the president declared there would be “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS” there.

In a March Instagram post, accompanied by a photo of himself marching in the 1980s, Fierstein listed several of his plays that he said had been banned from the Kennedy Center. Several, including musical adaptations of La Cage Aux Folles and Hairspray, feature either characters who are drag queens or cis female characters portrayed by male actors in drag. Fierstein also noted that many of his shows have previously been staged at the Kennedy Center.

Richard Grenell – an out gay man and the Kennedy Center’s interim head – responded to Fierstein and claimed his comments were “a total lie.”

“You aren’t banned. In fact, come do Hairspray or La Cage here at the Kennedy Center. This is your personal invite,” Grenell wrote, somewhat bafflingly considering both shows feature drag performances. “Let’s meet. If, however, you can handle diverse opinions and want to be inclusive of everyone, that is.”

Grenell also put out a statement on Monday after the senators revealed they had rented the space for a Pride concert. He called the move a “political stunt, where, once again, the Kennedy Center was being used by political operatives to LARP [live-action role play] as victims of intolerance.”

Grenell claimed that “no one has been cancelled by the Kennedy Center” and that all are welcome. However, the statement contradicts the administration’s actions. In March, Grenell defended the elimination of more than $2.5 million worth of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs at the arts center.

After the president took over, the Kennedy Center began quietly canceling LGBTQ+ programming, including a planned Pride performance by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington DC and a touring production of Finn, a children’s musical commissioned by the center about a shark who “wants to let out his inner fish.” The Center also canceled all of its previously scheduled WorldPride events.

The Kennedy Center hosts about 2,000 events per year and is a major supporter of the arts in D.C. Usually, it stays out of the political fray, but it has been transformed into the cultural arm of the MAGA movement, which probably explains its declining ticket sales. Subscriptions sales for the coming season of venue programming are down by roughly 36% overall compared with last year.

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