NEA Dials Back Commitment to “Gender Ideology” Restrictions
155March 12, 2025
TheNational Endowment for the Arts(NEA) has said it will temporarily drop a hotly contested requirement that grant applicants promise to refrain from using federal funds to “promote gender ideology.” The move comes after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)sued the organizationon behalf of four theater groups concerned that the nature of their work, which centers centers LGTBQ+ people and issues, would exclude them from funding. According to the ACLU’swebsite, artists need not check a box guaranteeing they will not advance “gender ideology” while the suit is pending, but those whose projects are perceived to do so may still be denied funding.
Filed on March 6, the ACLU’s suit responds to the NEA’s enforcement of President Donald Trump’s January 20 anti-transexecutive ordertitled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which bans federal recognition of gender beyond “the immutable biological reality of sex.” The ACLU has called the phrase “gender ideology” “unconstitutionally vague” and argues that it violates the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution as well as the NEA’s governing statute. The civil liberties watchdog was granted a March 18 hearing after requesting a preliminary injunction to block the grant restrictions entirely before the March 24 application deadline for the latest round of funding.
“We will continue to seek urgent relief against the NEA’s unconstitutional bar on projects that express messages the government doesn’t like, but this is a huge step towards initial relief,” said ACLU senior staff attorney Vera Eidelman in a statement. “We won’t stop fighting until these new requirements are struck down for good.”