Kennedy Center Honors could see some changes under Trump
The Kennedy Center has slightly delayed naming its list of annual lifetime achievement honorees until closer to the event in December, and the award itself, known for its rainbow-hued ribbon, may be redesigned in favor of a simpler version, sources familiar with the decisions told CBS News.
The announcement of the Kennedy Center Honors recipients, usually made annually in August, will happen in the next several weeks, one of the sources said.
Although some of the arts center’s staff and those who closely follow the event have worried the televised gala would be completely revamped and renamed in favor of a patriotic-sounding moniker, the Kennedy Center Honors name will remain untouched, sources said.
The rainbow theme won’t disappear entirely, but the ribbon for the lifetime achievement medallion will likely to be redesigned — possibly with a black or gold ribbon.
President Biden with 2022 Kennedy Center Honorees Amy Grant, Bono and The Edge of U2, and Gladys Knight during a reception at the White House on Dec. 4, 2022.Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
The Honors weekend will be revamped, with a more streamlined schedule instead of multiple gatherings at the State Department, the White House and elsewhere, sources said. The events were expensive and time-consuming, and honorees sometimes skipped portions of the non-televised events.
After criticizing the Kennedy Center‘s artistic fare and its finances, President Trump earlier this year named himself as its chairman, longtime aide and supporter Richard Grenell as its president and several White House officials and Trump allies as board members. That triggered a number of artists to cancel performances and some staff members resigned.
The Kennedy Center Honors ceremony is directed and produced by CBS and airs on the network.
The size of the Kennedy Center’s development team has been severely downsized, several sources close to the matter said. That team has shrunk from more than 60 to less than 20, and some departments have been slashed altogether.
Giving by Democratic donors has collapsed, although aggressive fundraising has continued and has outpaced past years with more corporate sponsors, several sources said.
Grenell told CBS News: “I don’t want to lose a single Democratic donor. We’re working hard to keep them and expand the donor base. The arts should not be political.”
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump at The Kennedy Center for the opening night performance of “Les Misérables” on June 11, 2025.Craig Hudson/For The Washington Post via Getty Images
During his first term, after several award recipients criticized him, Mr. Trump skipped the Honors shows, breaking a tradition of presidential attendance at the cultural venue.
President Biden attended during all four years of his term, including last year’s ceremony that recognized singer Bonnie Raitt, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, surviving members of the band the Grateful Dead, trumpet player Arturo Sandoval, and Harlem’s Apollo Theater.
Two of the sources said Grenell has been an effective organizer but is only occasionally at the Kennedy Center. One was critical of Grenell’s salary. Grenell started off taking zero salary and is now paid $175,000, sources said, which is less than the previous president, Deborah Rutter, whose salary topped $1 million, public tax records show.
Roma Daravi, a spokeswoman for the Kennedy Center, declined to comment on Grenell’s salary or changes to the award design.
She said they’re not making changes to ceremony itself. “If anything,” she said, “it’s going to be more exciting.”
Again I keep saying this, it is a fundamentalist Christian attempt to remove all media featuring or talking about the LGBTQ+. They do not want LGBTQ+ children seeing themselves in media, in library books, but more important they do not want straight cis kids to read or see kids who are different who are accepted. They want kids to grow up thinking those LGBTQ+ kids are bad and need to be ostracized or harassed / threatened to be cis straight. They want to return to the society / schools of the 1950s. These people can not accept that other people and other cultures exist that are different from the way they feel or live. They want what Russia and Hungary did, outlaw being gay in public. Hugs
The Florida Department of Education has identified more than 50 books it says are no longer permitted in public schools across the state, citing inappropriate and pornographic content.
But some parents and advocacy groups are questioning whether the state should have the final say over what books are allowed in schools — including in Broward County.
A parent who spoke with Local 10’s Roy Ramos on Thursday with believes families should have input, and that local reviews should take place before books are removed.
“You will remove these 55 books,” said Stephana Ferrell, a parent and director of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, responding to the state’s recent directive.
The Department of Education’s list bans 55 titles from public school libraries statewide. Ferrell said the move overrides local input.
“Every district basically got that message that those 55 books violate the law according to the state. It doesn’t matter if local community standards say no, these books are okay for certain grades and we believe them to fit our community standards,” she said.
Local 10 obtained a copy of the banned list. Some of the titles were described by the state as pornographic and unsuitable for children.
Among them: Choke, This Book Is Gay, Forever, and Breathless.
Portions of these books contain graphic content, including descriptions of male genitalia, sexual acts and intercourse — some of which were too explicit to air on television.
“They are saying we can remove these books based on experts alone and it doesn’t matter what the literary value is,” Ferrell said. “They are making the argument that our school library are government speech and they can decide what is appropriate or not.”
Under current Florida law, parents may challenge books in their school district. Those challenges are then reviewed by a committee to determine whether the content is inappropriate.
Ferrell argues the state is bypassing that process entirely.
“I believe that you have to review these books in their entirety to determine whether or not the intent of the work is to sexually excite the reader,” she added. “There is no opportunity for local parents to get involved. “None of it matters. The state has decided for us.”
Broward County schools were given until Tuesday to comply with the directive and remove the books.
The list currently includes 55 titles, but critics believe more will be added.
Local 10 has reached out to Broward County Public Schools for comment on the state’s order.
This is hugely pertinent to our interests. And the history callback of Dobbs/Roe is spot on!! This needs we the people’s work sooner rather than later. The story linked within is important background for working on this. Seriously: pick one or two (or more!) rights organizations and do what you can with them, now, while it’s not still too late, and stick with it until the other side is defeated. Please don’t wait until this is in court. Then:
A very sound scheme is to check in with your states on their legislative websites, see what the laws are right now, and what’s in the chute. Overturning Obergefell can’t/won’t change state laws regarding marriage, just as overturning Roe didn’t change state laws regarding repro rights. But knowing what could be coming, especially in red states, is imperative for getting ourselves protected, and protecting others. If your state is safe, well, pick another state that isn’t, and help them out. If your state has no law at all, lobby hard to get one, ASAP. And thanks!-A.
Some of Trump’s judicial nominees have refused in confirmation hearings to acknowledge that the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, striking down state bans on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional, was correctly decided. According to an analysis by JP Collins at the legal website Balls and Strikes, Eric Tung, who Trump nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, said only, “the Supreme Court granted such a right.” William Mercer, a nominee to the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, said Obergefell is “binding precedent,” but declined to “grade the Supreme Court.”
As Collins points out, these verbal gymnastics to avoid saying the case was correctly decided mirror those of Trump’s first term Supreme Court nominees who said Roe v. Wade was precedent but would not say it was correctly decided — and then voted to overturn it.
One might say marriage equality is different from abortion. Obergefell is just 10 years old, and Roe was decades old. But the most important feature that both decisions share is the enmity of the Christian right, and its determination to overturn them, no matter how many years or decades it takes.
Even before the court decided Obergefell in 2015, the Christian right was already planning to treat it just like Roe. The Supreme Court’s 1973 decision, they argued, was not the end of the abortion issue but rather the beginning. They used money, media, political might, religion, and relentless organizing to use abortion to drive politics and shape the judiciary. Their plans for Obergefell and LGBTQ rights are no different.
Photo by Astrid Riecken For The Washington Post via Getty Images
Scottie asked me a bit ago why I’ve not been posting much. Well, I don’t have a lot of time, and – well, maybe I don’t have a lot of time for some of the crap I find myself having to make time to accomodate.
A ‘for example’ is that I’ve grown weary of having to justify my very existence to people who feel so self-righteous declaring my very life an abomination. That a man and woman would come together in love to bring about a new life is fantastic and magical, but it isn’t the conception of the new life that is amazing to me – it is the true love.
Then I hear people, perhaps those who seek popularity through any means available, say that marriage is only for people who can conceive, and if the individuals are men then they can’t conceive and therefore their love and marriage are invalid. I can only assume that they conflate the ability to make a baby with love, though many rape victims can tell us that isn’t accurate. I would speculate that such people don’t understand love. Perhaps the reason such people can’t understand the difference between an abomination and love is because they go into a room of strangers they call brothers and sisters and fear that who and what they find most attractive and fulfilling will be ridiculed by others.
Perhaps dressed in their “Sunday Best” they focus overmuch on the show they are putting on for each-other. Perhaps they are too fond of the judgement of others and too afraid of the sincerity and honesty of themselves.
Truly, I am finding myself tired of having to demonstrate that life is not so simple as the script they have written only for others to follow.
I am truly tired of having to demonstrate understanding to ignorance, patience to racism, peace to violence and love to spite. I’m tired of having to express myself in private for fear of offending sensibilities that are insensible and hurting the morality of those whose morality is first tested by convenience. I’m tired of fearing the “love” of the “Christ-like”.
Again the attempt to kill diversity and the LGBTQ+ representation. This may seem small potatoes but again this is about erasing the LGBTQ+ community. Hugs
We are writing with profound regret to inform you that the 17th annual Desperado LGBTQ+ Film Festival has been canceled. This decision comes in direct response to recent presidential executive orders impacting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts at public institutions, including our community college district.
As a publicly funded institution, we must comply with these orders. Failure to do so would jeopardize the district’s federal funding, including student financial aid and grants that support over 300 positions across our campuses. The loss of such funding would create a ripple effect, significantly affecting students, faculty, staff, the community, and the educational services we provide.
Thank you to our audience that has made Desperado possible for the past sixteen years. You have helped us provide a platform for underrepresented voices and celebrate the richness of the LGBTQ+ community through the power of film. We are deeply grateful.
While we are heartbroken to pause this year’s event, we hope this is not a farewell but a momentary pause. We look forward to the possibility of resuming the festival when conditions allow.
Read the full press release. The festival is hosted by a student organization at Phoenix’s Paradise Valley Community College, which receives federal funds.
Scottie's Playtime 