Since taking office, the Trump Administration has scrubbed trans history from federal websites, including those of the US National Park Service (NPS). Why the focus on national parks? Because the NPS is tasked with not only preserving and protecting American nature but also American history.
At the time this essay is being written there are 433 national park units: 140 of those are historical and another 56 are battlefields or memorials. Several others are national monuments dedicated to history, and almost all national park sites (even the big nature ones) have some historical or cultural components.
National parks don’t just tell American history; they root our history in the ground, where we can touch it, see it, be where it happened.
Overall, there are hundreds of US national park units that preserve the history of America and Americans. Trans Americans are Americans. Their stories should be included in NPS history, and, until recently, they were.
Stonewall National Monument–the birthplace of protests that sparked a global LGBTQIA+ movement and the site of the first Pride parade–was designated a national park unit in 2016. Marsha P. Johnson and other trans and gender non-conforming protestors were key players in the Stonewall Riots, the first Pride march, and other groundbreaking acts of LGBTQIA+ activism.
Under the direction of the Trump Administration, all mention of Johnson and other trans activists has been removed from the official NPS website for Stonewall NM. And their stories are not the only ones being erased.
The NPS also shut down its page on LGBTQ heritage. They replaced it with a page about LGB heritage and removed many mentions of trans Americans from the remainder of its websites.
In an imitation of other authoritarian regimes, the Trump administration is attempting to rewrite American history to support their bigoted and erroneous views. They are attempting to create a false American history where trans people do not exist, have never existed, and have never contributed to our nation.
This narrative is as destructive as it is false. So let’s be clear: trans people have always existed, and they have always been a part of America. Trans Americans have contributed to our nation in countless ways–in small, everyday ways and big, world-altering ways.
Their lives have been both heralded and unsung, but they have been real. Trans Americans exist. And it is an honor to share their stories.
Today there is a government campaign to erase them entirely. But it won’t work.
Because we have all seen a trans person. Many of us have known and/or loved a trans person. We have read their stories and learned their names.
And for those who haven’t, here is a link to an NPS video about Marsha P. Johnson. Watch it, before it gets taken down.
Eager to support national parks? Here is an essay about what you can do to help.