NPR Tells Ari Shapiro Not to Attend a Pride Event, Then Reverses Decision After Backlash

Well-known gay host on National Public Radio (NPR) Ari Shapiro was discouraged from attending a corporate Pride event following the threat from republican lawmakers to halt funding to NPR and PBS.

Ari Shapiro is a longtime host for a show on NPR called All Things Considered and has attended many Pride events in the past. NPR’s managing editor for standards and practices, Tony Cavin, being the person who personally signed off on Shapiro attending these events in the past, shocked not only the host, but many other NPR editorial staff by telling him not to go to a corporate Pride event. Cavin wrote in his email, “The guidance in our ethics handbook is to ‘avoid appearances at private industry or corporate functions.’ Because this is a closed corporate event, I think it would be best to politely decline.”

What Cavin did not know or failed to realize is the email was not sent personally to Shapiro, but instead included a lot of other NPR staff. Shapiro told Semafor that he responded to the email asking why this event was any different than others he had been allowed to attend. After Semafor reported on the email, an NPR spokesperson reported that Shapiro would be allowed to go to the event after all.

One may be led to believe that this sudden change of heart about attending Pride events comes from increased Republican threats to NPR to pull their funding. Shortly after Trump took office, his new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Brendan Carr ordered an investigation into NPR and PBS for concerns that they may be, “violating federal law by airing commercials.” Republican Senator Mike Lee also introduced a new bill called the Defund Government Sponsored Propaganda Act which seeks to prohibit federal funding for NPR and PBS and transfer those funds to help, “reduce public debt and for other purposes.”

This administration and its supporters are doing everything they can to erase the people and stories that do not uphold their white supremacist values. And their influence is working on some organizations. Trans athletes have been banned form collegiate sports, trans prisoners are being moved to prisons that do not represent their identities, and gender-affirming care is on the chopping block in many places. If Cavin’s attempt to dissuade his host from attending a gay event was made out of fear of retaliation, that is extremely unfortunate. This administration is going to go after any organization that dares to critique or criticize them, and trying to ‘play nice’ or abide by their standards will not save them from further attacks. If they’re going to come for you, at least be authentically yourself when they do.

Photo by Justine Vanderpool on Instagram