National Pride Service Report: March 10-30
A summary of the recent work conducted by the National Pride Service.
Given the sudden increase in disturbing detentions and deportations being conducted without due process in recent weeks, we decided to restore a page that the National Park Service removed on Latinx LGBTQ+ gathering places. Others have tried to erase these places and failed. So, we decided to make sure the fascists who took over the National Park Service failed too.
You can read everything they deleted on the full page here:
National Pride Service
We also observed some reversals recently in which the Pentagon realized they might have gone a smidge too far with whole bigotry thing. They restored a bunch of websites that had been removed through the same "automated" process that led to records of the airplane that dropped nuclear warheads on Japan being marked for deletion because it was named the Enola Gay. We're thrilled that public outrage has forced some of the fascists to reverse course. One of our rangers penned an essay though about how we should be very cautious with that optimism.
You can read it here:
National Pride Service
In addition to those articles, we also have two new additions to our Ranger-led activities series. They are Touch Something Green and Read a Banned Book. We encourage you to give these activities a try, especially if you find yourself doom-spiraling because of everything that's happening right now.
Here are the activities:
National Pride Service
National Pride Service
Reading and Resources
These are some other articles and interesting links that we found and shared recently:
- Here are all the ways people are disappearing from government websites: If you read nothing else in this list, read this excellent article by NPR on all of the records being changed and erased across several federal agencies. It is nice to see a news outlet acknowledge that these erasures are happening and investigating them deeply.
- Pentagon restores webpage for Black Medal of Honor winner but defends DEI purge: While it's been obvious to those of us paying attention that federal agencies are using some sort of terrible "find and erase" method to remove content on diversity, the incident this article covers is one of the first times the government admits that is what they're doing.
- Pentagon restores webpages of Black veterans, Navajo Code Talkers and others after outcry: This article is notable because government officials claim they are trying to "comply with the policy and not erase history" even though complying with the policy requires them to erase the many fine contributions marginalized Americans have made to our military.
- Why LGBTQ+ History Matters: We felt this essay by Kevin Jennings sums up some of the key reasons why fighting for LGBTQ+ history leads to a better future for all of us.
- Chapel Hill Restores LGBTQ History, Diversity Pages After Brief Removal During Website Audit: Federal agencies aren't the only ones to keep an eye on. This incident seemed to have occurred through misguided decisions more than maliciousness, but it's important to keep an eye on how state and local governments are maintaining their historical records as well.
- The Queer Liberation Library: One of our followers shared this library containing numerous books and other resources on queer topics. We encourage you to check out what they have and support their mission to provide free access to queer-focused literature and non-fiction.
That's all for this report! If you want to get more frequent updates from your National Pride Service, follow us on Bluesky or Mastodon.
As we charge into a new week, we're going to take a closer look at the new executive order President Trump issued recently that targets our friends at the Smithsonian. As we suspected when the National Park Service started censoring the words "transgender" and "queer", the fascists in charge aren't going to stop with the Ts and the Qs. They're going after "improper ideology," which to them means every historical narrative that isn't told from a white, straight, or male perspective.
We'll keep an eye on these developments while continuing to restore censored records. Thank you so much for reading!
