Gays Banned From National Parks Civil Service Group Says

[davidinalameda]

http://www.365gay.com/newscontent/122303natParks.htm

All images of gay gatherings at national sites, including the Millennium March on the Washington Mall have been ordered removed from videotapes that have been shown at the Lincoln Memorial since 1995 according to a civil service group.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) says that the directive came from National Parks Service Deputy Director Donald Murphy. Murphy is said to have been concerned about pictures in the video that showed same-sex couples kissing and holding hands after conservative groups complained.

The Millennium March held in 2000 to bring attention to LGBT civil rights issues drew tens of thousands of gays and their supporters to the mall for one of the biggest demonstrations since the civil rights and anti-war marches of the 1960s.

[Andy_Stephenson]

1. Get used to it dwickham....

it is only going to get worse as time goes by. I am afraid us GLBT folk are in for a rough time in the not too distant future.

Andy

[Walt Starr]

3. GLBT people are to the NeoCons

what the Jews were to the Nazis in the twenties.

They are the perfect scapegoat. They enrage the neocon base and provide an easy target for ire.

And before anybody starts screaming about my comparison, there were no Jews in concentration camps in the 20's. People of Jewish heritage should understand, though, the same anger that National Socialism in Germany directed towards the Jewish people of Germany in the 20's is being directed at GLBT people in 21st century USA. The same results of that anger and scapegoating against Jews in the 20's could occur in the USA towards the GLBT people within the next decade if left unchecked.

It could happen again.

[Andy_Stephenson]

9. "They are the perfect scapegoat."

Yes we are. But we go along either not caring or not seeing the real danger we are in. I for one see it. It is palpable. Now the question is...do I stand and fight or do I flee before it is too late? I doubt the camps will be up and running but I am sure instances of violence will increase.

I am running as an out and proud candidate...but I have to wonder when the attacks will start. I am not so sure I will be able to stand in the face of attacks on this issue. I mean how do I answer the criticism? Seattle is an oasis of progressives in the middle of a sea of conservatives.

I will slog along I guess and cross that bridge when I come to it.

[Walt Starr]

10. Look to history

Many Jews felt the same way you do right now. Jews in Germany during the 1920's would never have believed you if you told them within a decade and a half, they would be sent to death camps where they wouldbe gassed and cremated en masse.

The camps are coming if New-conservatism is not checked. You can count on it because scapegoating an entire segment of society can only go on for so long before it is either abandoned or taken to the next level where the "question" must have a "final solution".

[Andy_Stephenson]

12. Your right I am sure...

perhaps I just don't want to believe.

[LeahMira]

14. We are all family.

The Nazis rounded up people who were gay also. With the 21st century Nazis in the White House, we all have much to fear.

I remember Pastor Neimoller's words: First they came for the communists, but I was not a communist so...

I also remember the story (don't know if it really happened) about the King of Denmark who appeared in public wearing a Star of David armband.

We may have our disagreements about candidates, etc., but on this we absolutely must stick together. Maybe we all, straight and gay, need to think about how we would do with the idea of wearing a pink triangle armband.

I'm afraid that hard times are coming, and those times will require courage.

[noonwitch]

20. I think the Denmark story is an urban legend

At least as far as the King goes. The people did all wear yellow stars in unity to protect their jews. It worked, more than any other efforts elsewhere in occupied Europe.
There does seem to be something in the wind. The right has a real problem with homosexuality and there are a lot of people who don't care enough to voice any objections if some type of government pogrom against gays was started.


Why doesn't the park service remove all pictures of hand-holding and kissing, straight people included? I find all pda offensive! Everyone should be in the closet, gay or straight! (just kidding, to a certain extent).

[beyurslf]

22. very well put.

Only by rememberig and studying the past can we avoid the mistakes and travesties of it.

[Sir Craig]

7. Before it becomes too late...

I would like to disagree with your rather gloomy prognosis, but...

Like any other extreme viewpoint, there will come a time when there will be a backlash coming from the other direction. The main thing is to make sure the public becomes aware of actions such as what this loser Donald Murphy is trying to pull.

The real problem is, all this is taking place under the radar. Bush has managed to divert the public's attention from domestic issues with this Iraq idiocy of his, allowing the conservatives to push forward with their agenda.

We need to start putting pressure on the mainstream news services to start paying more attention to what is going on, or else the ghettos might actually make a comeback...

[atreides1]

18. Most Americans Don't Care!!!!!

The public does not care, the sheep still refuse to believe that Bush
and his cabal lied about the connection between Bin Laden and Saddam.

Now the story has changed, it's not about WMD's, it's about freeing a people from an evil dictator.

In order to make the public aware you have to make sure they give a damn, and it's evident that they don't.

As for the media, forget that idea, just like the Nazis the Neocons have already taken control of the press in this country, most of it at least, and what you have left is so far out of the mainstream that
most people don't consider anything they report to be credible.

When we look the other way when our own troops violate the Geneva Conventions and the Laws of War, when we attack each other for supporting the person that we think should be the candidate, when some
here at DU defend whatever the Israelis do no matter what.

How can you convince the American people that the time may be coming when loved ones are taken from their beds in the dead of night, only
to be returned as nothing more then ashes in a box, or perhaps with their minds or bodies no longer able to work on their own.

Look at people the next time you walk down the street in the city, watch their reactions when they walk pass a homeless person, see in they flinch or cross the street to avoid them.

Unless Americans choose to wake up and realize that this country is on a course that parallels other dictatorial empires in our history,
nothing can be done. America has chosen this path and only Americans can stop the evil from reappearing.

[jonnyblitz]

16. I agree.

And the majority of GLBT folk I encounter are indifferent/oblivious to all of this. Sadly the only political GLBT's I seem to meet anymore outside of DU and anti-war rallies are the Log Cabin types who don't approve of all of this but seem to support politicians who do.

[liberalhistorian]

2. I simply cannot believe all of the

anti-gay hoopla going on now, as if they're somehow evil people who can pass their "evil corruption" onto anyone who touches them, and like we don't have more important problems to deal with. If I were gay, I'd be up in arms about all of this and furious at the depiction of me as an "unnatural moral degenerate" by bigoted prigs who don't even know the people they're bashing!

[Walt Starr]

5. Read post three

It could happen here.

[lefty_mcduff]

4. Wow. 'kissing' and 'holding hands' outrages the repukes....

...while they fall over themselves to support pResident Evil as he gets Americans, Italians and Iraqis killed on a daily basis. Nice.

[ronnykmarshall]

6. First offending breasts and now this.

Any lurking FLog Cabin memebers please feel free to defend YOUR leader on this.

Chicken shits.

[maddezmom]

8. sad days ahead if we don't remove the current administration

:(

[TreasonousBastard]

11. "...CONSERVATIVE GROUPS COMPLAINED" !!!!!!!!!

Sorry about the caps, but who the hell are "conservative groups" to have a say about this?

Every one of us, gay or straight or whatever, has to take this on as the civil rights battle of the 21st century.

Last night I was talking to a Rutgers prof who is pretty well tuned in to campus political thought. He tells me word is that the general election next year won't be fought over Iraq, but over gay marriage.

That's the coming battle cry from the right wing, and we all better be ready for it.

[Devlzown]

13. These videos have been shown since 1995?

And now, after 8 years, they've become a problem. The article says that they're putting in scenes of rallies that didn't even occur at the memorial. Why not just show a broadcast of the 700 Club?

[xchrom]

15. outrageous

well what can we expect from bushco?
if we don't make a change in 04 -- it's gonna get worse.

[HFishbine]

17. A little misleading

on the subject line there, don't you think?

[davidinalameda]

19. I just post them--I don't write them

anyway, in effect we have been banned--it's like we don't exist

they only want good conservative rallies to be shown

[Andy_Stephenson]

21. Although....

"Other restrictions may apply"

[beyurslf]

23. Does anyone else just have the nasty hatred boil in them at the thought

of 4 more years of Bush? It frightens me.

[Blade]

24. Like I said when a similar article was posted yesterday...

It's pretty fucking sick when everyone caters to the homophobic republican assholes. First the White House, then the America people, then CBS, now, the National Park Service. This just makes me so fucking sick I can't stand it.

To hell with all the Republican hypocritical homophobic assholes.