One week after his firing from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., Floyd Brown lifted the curtain Friday to provide more details about how it went down.
And it looks like Brown has a good religious discrimination case against the federal government.
Last Thursday, CNN ran a story describing Brown as a “far-right activist” who is a professing Christian and who has made statements in the past critical of the homosexual lifestyle and same-sex marriage. The outlet appeared to take credit for getting him fired, “just hours after CNN reached out with questions about his past statements.”
A month earlier, Brown had taken a position as vice president of development at the Kennedy Center.
Brown is the founder and former owner of The Western Journal and a Reagan administration and presidential campaign alumnus. More recently, he has been an active member in the MAGA movement, working last year in Arizona politics as volunteer chairman of Kari Lake’s U.S. Senate campaign.
He also authored the bestselling book in 2023 titled “Counterpunch: An Unlikely Alliance of Americans Fighting Back for Faith and Freedom,” filled with MAGA views about the border, education, trade, and reindustrializing America. Brown made numerous media appearances during the 2024 election cycle, advocating for these ideas and for President Donald Trump.
In February, Trump named Richard Grenell as interim director of the Kennedy Center, writing on social media, “Ric shares my Vision for a GOLDEN AGE of American Arts and Culture, and will be overseeing the daily operations of the Center. NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST. RIC, WELCOME TO SHOW BUSINESS!” In other words, no more woke.
I am pleased to announce that Ric Grenell will serve as the Interim Executive Director of The Kennedy Center. Ric shares my Vision for a GOLDEN AGE of American Arts and Culture, and will be overseeing the daily operations of the Center. NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN…
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) February 10, 2025
Should Brown be rehired to the Kennedy Center immediately?
Grenell has been a Trump loyalist dating back to the president’s first term, when he was acting director of national intelligence and ambassador to Germany. He also identifies as homosexual and has a male partner.
In a post last week on X regarding his firing, Brown wrote, “I asked for an explanation of my dismissal, and I asked to speak to @RichardGrenell — Both of those requests have been ignored.
“The only explanation is the one given to me at the time of my firing. ‘Floyd, you must recant your belief in traditional marriage and your past statements on the topic, or you will be fired.’ Needless to say, I refused to recant and was shown the door. My beliefs are much more common to Biblical Christianity [than Grenell’s, who also professes to be a Christian],” he added.
“My only conclusion is @RichardGrenell was intimidated by a @CNN story, which hasn’t been aired or published, so he preemptively fired me for my Christian beliefs on marriage,” Brown said.
The Bible teaches in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament — and Jesus affirms in the New Testament — that marriage is between a man and a woman.
In its reporting, CNN said that Grenell did not respond to a request for comment about Brown’s past comments.
Further, “A source familiar with the Kennedy Center confirmed to CNN that Brown is no longer there and said that Grenell had not met with Brown, did not know him, and was not involved in his hiring.” It’s worth noting the outlet did not say he was not responsible for his firing.
Brown gave some behind-the-scenes details in a post on X on Friday, refuting the assertions that Grenell was oblivious to his removal.
“During the week since my firing, @RichardGrenell keeps telling the media he doesn’t know me, hasn’t met me, and wasn’t involved in hiring, or firing me. Trump envoy ‘didn’t know’ fired Kennedy Center official,” he wrote.
Brown recounted that he has been asked how he knows that Grenell is responsible for his firing.
“The reason is simple; I was present in the office with my boss, Lisa Dale, when I saw Ric Grenell’s name appear on her phone. After the telephone call, she told me, he demanded my firing. Lisa was adamant that she didn’t want to fire me and was forced to do it,” he wrote.
It has been one week since my firing as a Vice President of the Kennedy Center for the Preforming Arts for my belief in traditional marriage. During the week since my firing, @RichardGrenell keeps telling the media he doesn’t know me, hasn’t met me, and wasn’t involved in hiring,… pic.twitter.com/jZ4kn7yFda
— Floyd Brown (@floydbrown) June 5, 2025
Brown also contradicted CNN’s reporting that Grenell does not even know who he is, saying they met multiple times during Kari Lake’s campaign events in both 2022, when she ran for Arizona governor, and 2024, when she ran for Senate.
Brown even shared an online flyer from an event last October when Grenell spoke in Phoenix for Lake.
He further explained that Grenell received his resume from Lake for the position at the Kennedy Center. “He had already hired Lisa Dale, from the Lake Campaign, and Lisa hired me. During the process, she specifically told me @RichardGrenell approved my hiring,” Brown wrote.
He further recalled running into Grenell and shaking hands recently at the Center’s Hall of States.
“During my employment, I was on numerous calls with @RichardGrenell via Lisa Dale’s speaker phone. The first two weeks of my employment, I had no office and worked exclusively out of Lisa’s office.
“There are many witnesses to the simple fact that he knew me,” Brown concluded.
So CNN appears to be misinformed that Grenell does not know Brown, never met him, nor was he involved in hiring him.
Interestingly, the Supreme Court just ruled unanimously Thursday in favor of a straight white woman who claimed she had been discriminated against in her employment in favor of a gay man and a lesbian woman.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, writing for the court, concluded that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act does not require a heightened standard to prove discrimination, just because the person alleging the wrong is a member of a majority group.
She noted that the Civil Rights Act bars employment discrimination against any individual “because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”
It seems clear that Floyd Brown — a straight, white Christian man — was discriminated against because of his faith-based beliefs by an organization headed by a homosexual man.
The record is in plain view: CNN inquired about Brown’s past statements about homosexuality and traditional marriage. He was told he needed to recant. Brown did not, and he was fired.
Trump knows the pivotal role Christians played in his re-election.
Shortly after taking office, he issued an executive order titled “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias,” with directives to federal agencies to root it out in government and society.
Here’s a solid opportunity to make good on that order.
Brown should be reinstated immediately, with an apology from Grenell.
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