Drag Artists Hold Protest at Kennedy Center Amid Trump Takeover

Drag queens and kings showed their support for the LGBTQ+ community by holding a march to Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and rally over the weekend following President Donald Trump’s comments regarding the cancellation of drag and “woke” events at the venue.

The march began at Washington Circle on March 8, followed by a half-mile walk to the Kennedy Center. In front of the arts institution, the crowd held a rally with various speakers. One of the speakers, drag queen Tara Hoot, told the crowd that “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,” Hoot said. “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.”

A petition was also launched by the advocacy group Qommittee, which is calling-on the venue’s donors to suspect funding until artistic independence is restored. Currently, the petition has received nearly 40,000 signatures.

The rally follows a list of cancellations at the Kennedy Center, including the notable, award-winning show “Hamilton.” Producer Jeffrey Seller posted a lengthy statement to Instagram last week sharing the cancellation, where he noted that  “recent purge by the Trump Administration of both professional staff and performing arts events at or originally produced by the Kennedy Center flies in the face of everything this national cultural center represents.”

| READ: Kennedy Center President Calls ‘Hamilton’ Cancellation ‘Publicity Stunt That Will Backfire’ |

“This is a publicity stunt that will backfire,” the Kennedy Center’s new president Ric Grenell said in a statement after the cancellation. “The arts are for everyone – not just people who Lin likes and agrees with.”

While X owner and Trump ally Elon Musk did not specifically release a statement of his own regarding the cancellation, he responded to a post on X where a user said that the Kennedy Center was “not HIGHLY politicized before Trump 2.0 took office” and “in reality, Trump is eliminating the politicization and you fascist drama queens are just peeved that the institution no longer reflects your perverse political beliefs.”

Musk simply stated, “Exactly.”

“Hamilton” isn’t alone; the Kennedy Center released a list of show cancellations and postponements over the past six months on Friday. Roma Daravi, VP of public relations at the center, noted in a statement that the list was published “in the spirit of transparency due to the litany of misinformation being spread in the press,” noting that the only shows the venue has cancelled were “due to lack of sales or artist availability.”

Notably,  a planned tour of the children’s musical “Finn” was cancelled last month. The production, which is commissioned and first premiered last year, sold-out during its initial run at the Kennedy Center. While the venue noted in a statement that its decision was a financial one, the production has been dubbed “controversial” as its themes could be portrayed as a metaphor for the LGBTQ+ community.

The public have spoken-out about the direction of the Kennedy Center, with many worried of its future under Trump’s leadership. The President previously said that he plans to eliminate drag shows and “woke” art at the venue, though admitted he has never actually seen a show at the institution.