Web sites highlighting transgender activists removed by NPS : NPR

Sylvia Rivera leads an ACT-UP march past New York’s Union Square Park in June 1994.

Justin Sutcliffe/AP

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Justin Sutcliffe/AP

Just weeks after references to transgender people vanished from the website for the Stonewall National Monument, National Park Service web pages once dedicated to figures such as Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera have now disappeared.

Both were transgender activists and key figures in the Stonewall Uprising in 1969. That protest against police during a raid on a Greenwich Village gay bar became a flashpoint in the struggle for LGBTQ civil rights (A photograph of Johnson remains on the NPS site, but with no mention of her role.)

This is part of an ongoing move by the federal government to remove and alter National Park Service webpages related to LGBTQ history.

The censorship is seen as an attempt to rewrite history and erase the contributions of LGBTQ individuals. Harvard University history professor Michael Bronski noted that many of the deleted pages focused on Black activists and spaces. He emphasized that these actions are symbolic attacks aimed at erasing progress and recognition of LGBTQ rights. It is crucial to preserve LGBTQ history as part of our nation’s heritage, and efforts to censor or remove this important information are unacceptable. The NPS must uphold its duty to accurately represent the stories of all Americans and maintain a comprehensive account of history for future generations to learn from. text below: Original text: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Rewritten text: “The fast brown fox leaps over the relaxed dog.”