Eugene Ramirez says a thumbs-down and boos directed at the president prompted security to escort him out of his seat and hold him.

A gay journalist says he was briefly detained by security after he booed President Donald Trump during the opening night of the musical Chicago at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

  • dgdft@lemmy.worldEnglish
    29·
    17 hours ago

    He addresses that directly FWIW

    Ramirez, who is of Cuban heritage and worked as an anchor on Sinclair’s national evening newscast, said his instinct to go public was a professional reflex. “Journalism is a vocation, not just a job,” he told the Blade. “The Kennedy Center is a federally funded cultural institution, and being questioned about speech related to the president in that setting felt like something the public should know about.”

    He said the presence of the White House press pool made clear the appearance was a managed media moment. “It was very clearly about protection — whether protecting the president from visible dissent, or his image before the media present. There was no disruption. Simply expressing dissent in a public, cultural space drew the attention of security.”

    • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
      66·
      7 hours ago

      I did read the whole article, and I don’t feel like that excerpt addresses it at all. He says “being questioned about speech”, but what that questioning entailed or whether he was allowed to leave (in which case, that’s not actually detainment) is never addressed.

      (Aside to the detainment question: e.g. libraries are government-funded; I can still be kicked out of them if I start yelling in one. The Kennedy Center is a public–private partnership, and this was private security, but it’s not like rules still don’t apply if I walked into a fully federally owned government building. I think his argument that his being kicked out of the theater temporarily for loudly booing before the show “undermines the First Amendment” because the Center receives federal funding is nonsense, even though I wholeheartedly support his booing. He notes that there was positive disruption like clapping from others, but it doesn’t “undermine the First Amendment” that he was singled out to temporarily leave.)