Just weeks after the Kennedy Center fired a member of its leadership team due to his Christian beliefs regarding homosexuality, the venue permitted a LGBT “pride” concert to take place.
The New York Times reported that “five Democratic senators staged a gay pride concert at a small theater at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Monday night as a form of symbolic protest against President Trump’s takeover of the institution.”
Those who participated included Broadway artists like Javier Muñoz, a “Hamilton” alum who sang “Satisfied” from the musical, and composer Andrew Lippa, who performed the song “I Am Harvey Milk” alongside the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington.
“The 90-minute concert was called ‘Love Is Love,’ a slogan used by the gay rights movement and quoted by the ‘Hamilton’ creator Lin-Manuel Miranda when his show won at the Tony Awards in 2016,” the Times noted.
Jeffrey Seller, the lead producer of “Hamilton,” put together Monday’s Kennedy Center show at the invitation of Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado.
“Mr. Hickenlooper reached out to Mr. Seller a few weeks ago, asking if he wanted to engage in some ‘guerrilla theater,’ Mr. Seller said in an interview before the event. It was meant, Mr. Seller said, ‘to celebrate gay characters, gay culture, gay music and gay pride,’” according to the Times.
“This is our way of reoccupying the Kennedy Center,” he said. “This is a form of saying, ‘We are here, we exist and you can’t ignore us.’ This is a protest, and a political act.”
Thank you to the cast and crew for giving their time and talent. Thank you to Jeffrey Seller, a true visionary and artistic force.
Thank you to my fellow Senators who came together to make this Pride celebration at the Kennedy Center happen.
To the LGBTQ+ community, you’re not… pic.twitter.com/n0JO9Ir3kL
— Senator John Hickenlooper (@SenatorHick) June 24, 2025
Would you like to see a new president appointed at the Kennedy Center?
In February, President Donald Trump named Richard Grenell as interim director of the Kennedy Center, writing on social media, “Ric shares my Vision for a GOLDEN AGE of American Arts and Culture, and will be overseeing the daily operations of the Center. NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST. RIC, WELCOME TO SHOW BUSINESS!”
In other words, no more woke.
I am pleased to announce that Ric Grenell will serve as the Interim Executive Director of The Kennedy Center. Ric shares my Vision for a GOLDEN AGE of American Arts and Culture, and will be overseeing the daily operations of the Center. NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN…
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) February 10, 2025
Grenell has been a Trump loyalist dating back to the president’s first term, when he was acting director of national intelligence and ambassador to Germany. He also identifies as homosexual and has a male partner.
Seller had previously cancelled a planned 2026 run of “Hamilton” at the Kennedy Center, saying he did not want to support Trump’s vision for the venue.
The Kennedy Center released a statement from Grenell on X amid Monday night’s show, saying, “I’m disappointed to learn that Hamilton Producer @jseller and Hamilton Creator @Lin_Manuel are working with Democratic Senators and the New York Times to boycott the Kennedy Center, refusing to perform for audience members who don’t share their personal politics, and cosplay as victims of intolerance.”
“Earlier this month, Senator @Hickenlooper staff asked to rent space at the Kennedy Center for what his team billed as a first annual Talent show. We were pleased to welcome them to the Kennedy Center in this capacity,” Grenell added.
“We were only later notified by the New York Times that Senator Hickenlooper’s event was instead an invite-only political stunt where, once again, the Kennedy Center was being used by political operatives to larp as victims of intolerance in order to get a story in the Times,” he said.
Statement from Ambassador Richard Grenell, President of the Kennedy Center:
I’m disappointed to learn that Hamilton Producer @jseller and Hamilton Creator @Lin_Manuel are working with Democratic Senators and the New York Times to boycott the Kennedy Center, refusing to perform…
— The Kennedy Center (@kencen) June 23, 2025
Grenell next asserted, “No one has been cancelled by the Kennedy Center; we welcome everyone who wants to celebrate the arts, including our compatriots on the other side of the political aisle.”
But that statement is not true. Last month, the Kennedy Center, reportedly at the direction of Grenell, fired Floyd Brown, who had taken a position recently as vice president of development.
The removal came immediately after CNN inquired about past statements Brown had made regarding homosexuality and so-called same-sex marriage. The outlet appeared to take credit for getting him fired “just hours after CNN reached out with questions about his past statements.”
Some of those statements were in a 2011 syndicated column Brown wrote with his wife, lamenting the loss of the Christian worldview regarding sexual mores, including the once universally held belief that marriage could only be between a man and a woman.
CNN also highlighted statements Brown made in 2023 at a Christian event, during which he recounted his time working in Washington on Capitol Hill early in his career and the prevalence of homosexual staffers, even among Republican offices in Congress. Brown argued that this was a reason legislation supporting traditional values does not move forward.
He made the remarks at a Christian meeting called “Fire and Glory” in Ocala, Florida, in March 2023, hosted by Christian speaker Lance Wallnau.
This is the speech that triggered it all. @floydbrown told us exclusively that he was fired for these 2023 remarks at a Christian event.
He described GOP hypocrisy—how pro-family policies are blocked by staffers hostile to Biblical marriage.
4/16 pic.twitter.com/ilbgkaUiKI
— Next News Network 🇺🇲 (@NextNewsNetwork) May 30, 2025
Brown explained on Wallnau’s podcast earlier this month that after CNN made its inquiries to the Kennedy Center about his past remarks, he was told that he would have to renounce them if he wanted to keep his job.
“I just described a situation, and I just described it accurately,” Brown said regarding his observation about Capitol Hill staffers. “I wasn’t going to disavow it, and I wasn’t going to disavow any of my Christian beliefs around traditional marriage.”
The Bible teaches in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament — and Jesus affirms in the New Testament — that marriage is between a man and a woman. That’s to say nothing of the multiple passages in the Bible which identify homosexuality as sin.
The bottom line is that Grenell “cancelled” Brown at the Kennedy Center for his Christian beliefs about homosexuality, but permitted — perhaps originally unknowingly — a pro-LGBT concert at the same venue.
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