Tony-winning actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein claims he and his plays have been banned from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts following President Donald Trump’s recent takeover of the institution.
On Tuesday, March 18, Fierstein posted a statement on Instagram blasting Trump, who announced in February his plans to fire members of the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees and install himself as chairman.
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“I have been banned from THE KENNEDY CENTER,” the Mrs. Doubtfire actor wrote. “A few folks have written to ask how I feel about Trump’s takeover of The Kennedy Center. How do you think I feel? The shows I’ve written are now banned from being performed in our premiere American theater.”
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In Trump’s February 7 Truth Social post announcing his plans for the Kennedy Center, the president cited “Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth” that he said the institution had hosted last year. On February 10, Trump named Richard Grenell – an out gay man currently serving in the newly created role of “Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions” – as the center’s new interim head and again made it clear that he intended to end drag performances at the institution.
“NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST. RIC, WELCOME TO SHOW BUSINESS!” Trump wrote.
In his Tuesday Instagram post, accompanied by a photo of himself marching in the 1980s, Fierstein listed several of his plays which he says have been banned from the Kennedy Center. Several, including musical adaptations of Kinky Boots, 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.
“I have been in the struggle for our civil rights for more than 50 years only to watch them snatched away by a man who actually couldn’t care less,” Fierstein wrote of Trump. “He does this stuff only to placate the religious right so they’ll look the other way as he savages our political system for his own glorification.”
Fierstein blasted Trump’s attacks on free speech, the free press, and U.S. allies — likely referring to the Trump administration’s recently imposed 25% tariffs on goods produced in Canada and Mexico, which experts agree will lead to higher prices for American consumers.
“My fellow Americans, I warn you – this is NOT how it begins,” Fierstein wrote. “This is how freedom ENDS!”
Grenell responded to Fierstein’s comments the same day in an X post, writing that the actor’s claim that he’d been banned from the Kennedy Center was “a total lie.”
“Whoever told you this (because you obviously didn’t do your own research) should be fired from your team for purposefully making you look foolish,” Grenell wrote.
He went on to tout his record as the first openly gay U.S. Cabinet-level official — he served as acting director of national intelligence for several weeks in 2020, during Trump’s first term in office — and claimed that “I, too, have been in the fight for equality for decades.”
“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.”
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