LGBTQ+ artistic endeavors have no “artistic merit,” at least according to a majority of the SC Arts Commission, a group appointed by MAGA conservative governor Henry McMaster and approved by the Republican-dominated South Carolina Senate.
The Commission’s staff review process had recommended funding for The Greenville Gay Men’s Chorus and the Proud Mary Theatre Company of Spartanburg, among about 170 other arts entities.
The Commission thought otherwise and voted 6-2 to withhold funding from just those two groups pending further review.
Commissioner Russel Parks of Easley said, according to a report in The Post and Courier, “The General Assembly holds this commission accountable for maintaining community standards, and the commission has concerns about two programs that were presented. What we question is the artistic merit of these two programs.”
SC law (SECTION 60-15-10) clearly requires that State support of the arts “be directed toward encouraging and assisting rather than limiting the freedom of artistic expression that is essential for the well-being of the arts.”
The withholding of funds from organizations whose membership (The Gay Men’s Chorus) or content (Proud Mary Theatre Company) is predominantly LGBTQ+ could easily be construed as an attempt to limit freedom of artistic expression.
The Commission voted to approve $3.7 million for arts organizations in the state.
The Chorus would have received $13,050, little more than three percent of the total. Proud Mary would have received around $3,800, barely one percent.
A resolution adopted at the meeting reads in part, “The Commission declares as its policy that no person or entity that receives grant funding from the Commission shall, in any work funded in whole or in part by grant funds administered by or received from the Commission, promote any ideology without regard to what that ideology might be.”
According to reporting in the LGBTQ+ media outlet Them, Commissioner Jessica Rourke of Columbia said she would not vote to fund “organizations structured around specific sexual orientations, nor should public funds support drag performances.”
Paul Hyde, a well-known arts writer, in an opinion column for the South Carolina Gazette, said the decision “appears to have less to do with the quality of their art than with the ideas commissioners believe the organizations represent. That should concern anyone who believes an arts commission ought to promote the arts rather than police the ideas expressed through them.”
“If expressing ideas makes a work ‘ideological,’ Hyde wrote, “then virtually every serious arts organization in South Carolina would have to defend itself for expressing ideas that make us think.”
The South Carolina House Freedom Caucus, a group of uber-conservative legislators, has been fighting funding for arts endeavors, LGBTQ+ or not.
Vice Chair of the Caucus, Rep. Josiah Magnuson (R-Campobello) said, “I do not believe government is the best place to keep pushing people to do art. I think the best place is the private sector.”
Magnuson is up for re-election in November.
While a meeting will be held on October 15 to make a final decision, it is doubtful the Commission will change its mind.
The Chorus has started a GoFundMe account, raising at press time more than $20,000 of a $40,000 goal.
This story is brought to you by Rosedale Health and Wellness and Dudley’s Place.
