The Theater Offensive in Boston and Rhode Island Latino Arts are among four arts organizations that recently won a lawsuit against the National Endowment for the Arts over President Trump’s executive orders blocking federal funds for “anything that promotes ‘gender ideology.'”

Reports Rhode Island independent journalist Steve Ahlquist:

In an important victory for First Amendment rights, a federal judge in Rhode Island has ruled in favor of four arts organizations in their challenge to the National Endowment for the Arts’ (NEA) policy disfavoring any grant applications for projects that the government believes “promote gender ideology.” The court held that the NEA’s policy violates the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and enjoined and set aside its implementation of an executive order that prohibits federal funding for grants that express ideas disfavored by the government.

U.S. Senior District Court Judge William Smith held that the NEA’s grant application review process “violates the First Amendment because it is a viewpoint-based restriction on private speech.” The order explains, “the NEA intends to disfavor applications that promote gender ideology precisely because they promote gender ideology. The Final Notice, therefore, promises to penalize artists based on their speech.”

Additionally, the court determined the NEA’s policy was “arbitrary and capricious” in violation of the APA because “…there is zero explanation of what it means for a project to ‘promote gender ideology,’ let alone how that concept relates to artistic merit, artistic excellence, general standards of decency, or respect for the diverse beliefs and values of the American public.”

The suit was filed in March by the ACLU and the ACLU of Rhode Island on behalf of Rhode Island Latino Arts (RILA), National Queer Theater (NQT), The Theater Offensive (TTO), and Theatre Communications Group (TCG) after the NEA began requiring applicants to attest that they would not promote so-called “gender ideology” to be eligible for funding, and would bar any projects that were deemed to do so from getting an award. In immediate response to the ACLU’s litigation, the NEA paused the “gender ideology” certification requirement and undertook another decision-making process to implement the executive order banning the use of federal funds to “promote gender ideology.”

More (including entire article): steveahlquist.substack.com

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