This just in from The History Project:
Earlier this year, the National Park Service removed “Their Dreams, Their Rights, and Their Love,” an LGBTQ+ audio tour of Beacon Hill and Downtown Boston, from its website.
While the National Park Service under the direction of the Trump Administration can decide what to display on their website, this tour belongs to the public — not the politicians. Work created by government employees in their official roles is public domain, and should be available to our community as we continue to fight for visibility, truth and joy.
The History Project exists to document, preserve, and share queer and trans stories; our work is especially vital when institutions fail to protect or respect our history.
We’ve made this tour accessible again, and we invite you to walk through queer and trans history in resistance against those who want to erase us.
Reported the Boston Globe:
Local LGBTQ+ historians and community organizers have been scrambling in the months since to keep these stories public. Historians, organizers, and former Boston NPS employees alike acknowledge they can store and share the community’s history independently — whether through archives or their own grassroots groups — but having it recognized by the US government is irreplaceable. …
Local organizations are trying to fill the gaps the Boston NPS has left behind. The History Project, a local LGBTQ+ history archive, is working to republish the redacted pages onto its digital archives by June. The audio tour is already online.
“Work created by government workers belongs to the American public,” said Joan Ilacqua, executive director of The History Project. “We’re going to make it available to the community because it should be.”
Ilacqua said the federal government’s move to strip public history of transgender and queer perspectives shows that creating space for independent repositories is ever more crucial. Trump’s executive orders, Ilacqua said, add uncertainty to a community that has always preserved history with limited resources and hands on deck.
“We’re already coming from this scarcity mindset,” Ilacqua said. “That urgency has always been there.”
Read the complete Boston Globe article here. For more on The History Project, visit historyproject.org.
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