Kennedy Center staffers called security last week after DC’s Log Cabin Republicans chapter disrupted a performance by a musician they called “a vocal opponent of President Trump.”

Yasmin Williams, an Alexandria-based and globally hailed guitarist, made headlines earlier this year for sparring by email with new Kennedy Center president Ric Grenell. She nonetheless honored her pre-Trump-takeover contract to perform at the Millennium Stage on September 18. All was going well until about five minutes before curtain, when theater staffers learned that 50 passes had been set aside for men purportedly intent on heckling, booing, and harassing Williams.

“They said they were concerned for my safety,” Williams tells Washingtonian.

Those seats were reserved for the Log Cabin Republicans by Grenell’s office, multiple Kennedy Center employees said. A member of Grenell’s staff even distributed passes and welcomed the men as they arrived, a current staffer confirmed for Washingtonian.

Williams was stunned. “All of a sudden, all these security officers rolled up,” she says. After taking the stage with her custom guitar, she realized why the officers were present. “There were about 20 guys in suits, and some of them were wearing MAGA hats,” Williams says.

https://www.washingtonian.com/2025/09/23/log-cabin-republicans-yasmin-williams/