Greetings from the National Pride Service

Hello Everyone!

The federal government has been BUSY the past few months. If you haven't heard the National Park Service has made a rather large error in updating their records recently and somehow erased all mentions of transgender, intersex, and queer people from the Stonewall National Monument website. Their updates were so haphazard, they made this rather awkward grammar error in a photo caption referring to transgender activist Sylvia Rivera.

We might forgive the government for the grammar error. After all, they are dealing with a rather large infestation of rabid muskrats right now. But we certainly do NOT forgive them for attempting to erase whole categories of people from history. As historian Hugh Ryan points out in a recent article, "The erasure of history, while it might seem unimportant in the moment, is in fact always a crucial step on the road to autocracy." He says, "History tells us this erasure is a trial balloon for much worse things, and it’s essential we hold the line."

We agree with him! We should acknowledge and be PROUD of the contributions transgender, intersex, queer, and other marginalized Americans have made to our nation. That's why we created the National Pride Service. If Elon can create an unofficial federal agency, then so can we.

What will we do with this new power of ours? Great question!

We are planning to use this space to help restore censored materials and carry the burden of acknowledging the existence of these people for as long as our government is suffering from fascist amnesia. For our first project, we restored access to the materials removed from the Stonewall National monument website at RealStonewall.com and provided some ranger commentary for your enjoyment.

We plan to work towards ensuring everyone continues to have access to the unimpaired materials. Our rangers will provide commentary to help you learn about and appreciate these resources. Currently, we are planning to assist the National Park Service first in correcting their records but we hope to assist other agencies as well. We will also share and amplify any other efforts we come across, like the actions being taken by the LGBTQ+ History Association and the GLBT Historical Society.

Our rangers are planning to share their perspectives in essays and to provide regular ranger-led activities to highlight small actions you can take to maintain your resiliency and support others in your community. We'll be distributing this content on Bluesky and Mastodon as well as in a regular newsletter.

If you're not a social media fan or prefer to dedicate your social media time to enjoying puns or pictures of baby animals, please sign up for our emails in the sign up box below! We know you're busy and we promise to do our best to make a good use of your time.

Remember that the only way to stop all rainbows from shining is to destroy the sun. Whether the current leaders of our nation like it or not, the history of LBGTQ+ and other marginalized Americans will not be suppressed. It will shine on!

We will make it so.