Providence, RI: THE National endowment for arts Today has agreed to remove a certification requirement which forced artists to attest that they will not “promote gender ideology” – the language added a month ago Compliance insurance page who cited President Trump's anti -Trans decree – in order to request funding A challenge to the requirement filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Aclu of Rhode Island Thursday, deposited Thursday in the name of a certain number of artistic organizations, pending.
The news is however mixed. Although artists can now request funding without attesting to the new requirement for “gender ideology”, the NEA has not agreed to remove its new eligibility criteria, under which any project that seems to “promote the ideology of the gender” will not receive a price. (NEA subsidies are paid in the form of reimbursements, not allocated in advance.) Applicants who choose to submit part 1 of the subsidy request before the NEA modifies its conformity insurance or before March 11, as soon as possible.
“Artists and artistic organizations should feel free to submit part 1 of the NEA request on March 11 without having to accept a certification that could have compromised their values or their vision,” said Vera Eidelman, Aclu's main lawyer in a press release. “We will continue to request an urgent relief against the unconstitutional bar of the NEA on projects that express the messages that the government does not like, but it is a huge step towards initial relief. We will not stop fighting as long as these new requirements are not canceled for good. »»
ACLU requests a preliminary injunction on the prohibition of financing before the deadline for the final subsidy request on March 24. Other guidelines added in February to the compliance insurance page, written to comply with the decrees of the president targeting “dei” and by promoting the hiring “based on merit”, were enjoined. A hearing date for the ACLU case is scheduled for March 18.
The prosecution was filed Thursday by ACLU, the ACLU of Rhode Island, David Cole and Lynette Labinger, cooperative lawyer of Aclu-Ri, on behalf of Rhode Island Latino Arts; National queer theater; The offensive of the theater; And The Theater Communications Group, the publisher of this magazine. The prosecution argues that the new certification requirement and the prohibition of funding violates the law on administrative procedure, the first amendment and the fifth amendment.
More information on the case can be found here.
