Back in November 2024, following the election, I noticed that the Pride flag displayed prominently in the window of KTOO was missing. I asked our station manager about it, and he informed me of a decision to remove the flag for the safety of the KTOO staff. He and I, along with other KRNN volunteers, then had a friendly and respectful conversation about the flag’s removal, and I was delighted by the station manager’s reflection that, on second thought, removing the flag was probably an error in judgment. The flag was then promptly returned to its former position.
I mention this now in regards to the JAHC’s recent decision to remove DEI references from its public websites. Even institutions can change their minds.
In late February, the JAHC board voted to remove existing DEI references from the JAHC’s public websites and other materials. This came following a directive from the National Endowment on the Arts, which the Trump administration had ordered to remove DEI language from its policies.
In corresponding with the JAHC, I was informed that the board thought it more important to safeguard the federal funding needed to maintain critical arts programs in Juneau rather than jeopardize the JAHC’s ability to support Juneau’s arts communities. I was assured that the removal of DEI references from the JAHC’s webpages was merely cosmetic and would not affect the JAHC’s work in any way.
JAHC wants to have it both ways: to satisfy the administration’s demands but continue to promote diversity surreptitiously. I don’t think that’s possible. Support from the JAHC cannot be simply financial. More broadly and, yes, inclusively, it must mean to openly and publicly promote diversity, not hide it.
“Promote”—the word’s etymology means to move toward, to stand with, to stand up for. Irrespective of the JAHC’s rationalizations, their action is on the very face of it a withdrawal of public support for those communities the Trump administration seems determined to ban from American society.
As a member of one of those communities, I take the JAHC’s action personally. This removal of their public support for diversity, equity and inclusion feels like a removal of their support for me and for all the others here in town who do not fit the current administration’s definition of what it means to be an American.
I appreciate the JAHC board’s budgetary position, not wanting to lose what federal funding it receives. I think this too is an error in judgment and simply emboldens the bully to make greater demands. Arts budgets are in jeopardy around the country, whether or not they capitulate to the administration’s demands.
“For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?”
As I suggest in my opening paragraph about KTOO’s Pride flag, it’s possible for institutions to change their minds, and it is still possible for the JAHC to reconsider and choose to resist these unlawful pressures and to keep public its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
These are crazy times, and we all have to think very carefully about the decisions we make and actions we take accordingly—and it’s not unlikely that we will make a wrong call from time to time. I would welcome the chance to talk about these things with the JAHC board and try to persuade them to reconsider. Juneau needs the JAHC’s support as much as they need ours.
I sincerely believe that the JAHC has made the wrong call here. But let me put my money where my mouth is. Last year, the JAHC awarded me an Artist Grant to support some of my writing. I will now be returning that grant money to the JAHC, with my sincerest thanks for the honor, but with my regrets that I cannot now accept it in good faith.
• Jane Hale lives in Juneau with her partner and their two poodles.
