Queer Kennedy Center employee FIRED after stripping nude in video to protest Trump admin

Forsyth, 32, who uses "they/them" pronouns, delivered a 35-minute spoken-word poem to express grievances about the Trump administration allegedly banning drag performers. In the explicit video, Forsyth pondered whether to resign in protest, saying, "Is my complicity inevitable, or am I holding a line on the inside?" Before Forsyth had the option to resign, Forsyth was terminated from the post. The former employee was part of an education division that worked with students at the center, sources told the National Pulse.

"Trump has taken over the Kennedy Center and that's a place where I work," said Forsyth at the beginning of the video, who had been sitting fully clothed on a bed. "He has vowed to ban drag performers from its stages, and as the saying goes, 'We're all born naked, and the rest is drag.'" Forsyth then snapped and the clothes Forsyth was wearing disappeared. Forsyth proceeded to sit on the bed naked with a rainbow heart-shaped digital censor over his genitalia, and questioned: "Should I quit the Kennedy Center?"

"Does staying make me a collaborator or somehow complicit in a hostile government takeover that's systematically targeting the livelihood and liberty of poor people, queer people, black/brown people, people of color, immigrants, Muslims, victims of war-torn countries, and ethnic cleansing, women?" Forsyth asked before answering "yes."

"But on the other hand, is staying holding the line and living to fight another day? Do I take up space and defend the vision for this institution that is diverse and inclusive, unlike Trump's vision for America?" Forsyth pondered. "Do I stay to defend the beautiful people that come to visit? Do I covertly raise my nose at the regime, raise the peace sign high, and do everything in my power to preserve the values of cooperation, creative freedom, and transformative storytelling that I hold so dear?"

Roma Daravi, vice president of public relations at the Kennedy Center, found the video "extremely disturbing," given the fact that Forsyth worked with minors. Forsyth defended the video, according to the Pulse, and argued that it was intended to critique the erosion of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies at the center.

According to Forsyth's bio on the Kennedy Center website, which has since been deleted, Forsyth is an expert in the use of theater to effect social change and was a member of a team at the center that oversees the administration of the Washington National Opera summer training program for high school singers across the nation, the LA Times reported.

Forsyth defended his video in an interview with the LA Times, expressing hope that it "inspired conversation around the role of the artist, and more generally, the role of the citizen." Additionally, Forsyth wants it to "encourage people to divest from oppressive institutions, to divest from systems of hate."

"As they dig their claws deeper into the administrative fabric of the Kennedy Center," said Forsyth, noting the changes being made by the Trump administration, "they're going to continue dismantling it and undermining all of the values that everyone at the Kennedy Center holds dear."

The Kennedy Center is a national cultural performing arts center located in Washington, D.C, that was recently governed with a progressive flare before the Trump administration took over.