National Park Service effectively bans uniformed staffers from Pride marchesUniformed park rangers have marched in some of the country's largest Pride parades in recent years, including those in New York City and San Francisco.
Read the Full ArticleNBC News - Jo Yurcaba
May 22, 2024, 5:00 PM MDT
Pride revelers will likely see less — if any — National Park rangers marching in uniform at LGBTQ Pride events across the country this year.
The National Park Service is effectively prohibiting uniformed employees from marching in public events that "could be construed as agency support for a particular issue, position, or political party," according to internal memos and documents shared with NBC News. This effective ban would extend to Pride marches, according to those documents.
The NPS spokesperson confirmed the veracity of three internal documents shared with NBC News ...
"Official NPS participation in community events that directly relate to a park's mission can be approved by the park superintendent, provided it is consistent with applicable laws, rules, regulations, and NPS policies," the spokesperson said in an email to NBC News Tuesday.
The back-and-forth over the uniform policy and its potential effect on Pride participation began May 9, after Frank Lands, NPS' deputy director of operations, said in a staffwide memo that the service had recently received an influx of requests from employees asking to participate in a variety of non-NPS events in uniform and requests to wear ornaments like pins, ribbons and buttons on their uniforms.---------
