In one of his day-one executive orders, President Donald Trump ordered an end to the federal funding of “gender ideology.” So why are Smithsonian museums — which rake in more than a billion taxpayer dollars a year — hosting events promoting LGBT ideology for the month of June?
On Saturday, the National Portrait Gallery, along with the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), threw an event billed as a “Pride Family Festival.” Tagged under both the “Family Programs” and “Kids and Families” event categories on the Smithsonian’s website, the three-and-a-half-hour event was geared specifically toward children, with “hands-on craft activities.” A description posted online boasted of coloring pages, a scavenger hunt, and “a drop-in story time featuring biographies.” A dance troupe performed a routine that, according to its website, “explores the work of queer women artists.” The youth section of the D.C. Gay Men’s Chorus was invited to perform, as was a band named D.C.’s Different Drummers, which describes itself as a “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender music organization.”
An official partner of the event was WorldPride DC, an extension of WorldPride, which is a recurring global event that claims it “promotes visibility and awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ+) issues.”
Such an event appears to violate Trump’s order that “federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology.” The Portrait Gallery has a “total annual federal budget of about $23 million,” according to its website. The Smithsonian Institution as a whole received $1.09 billion in taxpayer funding for fiscal year 2024, making up about 62 percent of its total funding.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s website even hosts a dedicated page titled “Pride Family Zone,” which invites children to “visit this page throughout the month for craft activities, coloring pages, video performances, and more as we celebrate Pride.” Rainbow-themed crafts offered on the page are designed for children as young as 3, with one encouraging kids to “design your own pride flag.”
Also hosted on the “Family Zone” page is a 2020 music video from D.C.’s Different Drummers in which a drag queen wielding a rainbow umbrella chases a man and berates him until he acquiesces to the demand to put on a Covid face mask.
And it’s not just the art museums. In addition to a “Celebrating Pride” trivia night at the Portrait Gallery, the American History Museum plans to celebrate LGBT ideology with an adults-only “evening of LGBTQ+ trivia.” Also listed is an “Intergenerational Panel Discussion” on WorldPride sponsored and hosted by the American History Museum. (In a short bio about each participant, the museum noted that moderator Katherine Ott “responds to all pronouns and is energetically honing her queer superpower.”)
Neither the Portrait Gallery, the SAAM, nor the American History Museum responded to a comment request when asked why the Smithsonian is still using federal funds to promote LGBT programming.
A White House official said the administration would continue “to ensure that federal funds will not be used to promote gender ideology” but declined to comment on whether remaining scheduled “Pride” events would be canceled. The official also noted that Kim Sajet, the former director of the National Portrait Gallery, had been fired on Friday “for her strong partisanship and support for DEI initiatives.”