Michael Feinstein Calls Kennedy Center Show Cancellations “Government-Sanctioned Censorship”

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Michael Feinstein is speaking retired astir the Kennedy Center lawsuit cancellations which led to the dismissal of a Pride programme helium was acceptable to conduct.

In an Instagram station earlier this week, the vocalist and pianist slammed the “recent Kennedy Center losses,” noting them arsenic “government-sanctioned censorship.” There, Feinstein shared his penned “Fear of Queer?” essay, wherever helium further discussed the cancellations.

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“Recently, I was invited to behaviour the National Symphony Orchestra, execute and talk astatine a programme entitled ‘A Peacock Among Pigeons: Celebrating 50 Years of Pride’ astatine The Kennedy Center, which celebrated the rainbow of influences upon art, euphony and our full culture,” Feinstein began. “This programme was abruptly and unceremoniously canceled.”

“These caller Kennedy Center losses whitethorn good beryllium defined successful the years ahead, arsenic the 21st period government-sanctioned censorship and silencing of creativity, careless of value, based strictly connected intersexual orientation,” helium wrote. Later successful the essay, Feinstein besides addressed Donald Trump’s caller enforcement bid to halt federal backing for NPR and PBS.

“Indeed, the latest attempts to portion PBS and NPR of captious funds, item the information that immoderate government-supported entree to the arts is nary longer safe,” helium wrote. “Since the existent medication has banned, cancelled oregon forbidden, successful an effort to erase immoderate performance oregon programme astatine the Kennedy Center, that successful immoderate mode allows creation to admit of beingness of homosexuality.”

After returning to power, Donald Trump announced his plans to “terminate aggregate individuals from the Board of Trustees” of the halfway connected Truth Social successful February, and named himself chairman of the Kennedy Center successful a ballot that resulted successful the center’s longtime president Deborah Rutter being fired.

In a statement shared online successful aboriginal March, Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of nationalist relations, said that “the lone shows nether the Kennedy Center programming umbrella that we person cancelled since February 12 were owed to deficiency of income oregon creator availability.”

Feinstein continued, “The adjacent logical measurement is to prohibition each works written by homosexual, bisexual, omnisexual, transsexual people, friends of cheery radical oregon radical suspected of being queer. It worked for the Nazis, right?”

As a lifelong friend and collaborator to Liza Minnelli, the EGOT victor showed her enactment for Feinstein’s “clarion telephone astir what whitethorn lone beryllium defined arsenic a bigoted onslaught connected the arts” and the LGBTQ+ community.

“As an state of the LGBTQ+ community, a quality rights advocate, the girl of 2 iconic, astonishing artists, a vocation of my ain that without contributions from LGBTQ+ geniuses, would person rendered maine a vocalist with fewer songs, a dancer with fewer collaborators, mostly bare ON STAGE, acting without scripts and I could spell on!” Minnelli wrote. “Please work ‘Fear of Queer? by Michael Feinstein’ carefully. Become progressive successful solution. Together, we volition halt censorship and hate.”

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