The Trump administration is working to expand its reach Suppressing diversity, equality and inclusion By ordering national parks to purge their gift shops of items they consider objectionable.
Gift stores, bookstores and concession stands have until Dec. 19 to empty their shelves of retail goods that run afoul of the law, the Interior Department said in a memo last month. President Donald Trump’s agenda.
The agency said its goal is to create “neutral spaces that serve all visitors.” It’s part of a broader initiative the Trump administration has pursued over the past year to eliminate policies and programs that it says discriminate against people based on race, gender and sexual orientation — an effort that has prompted some major companies and prominent universities to… Roll back diversity programs.
Conservation groups say the gift shop initiative amounts to censorship and undermines the National Park Service’s educational mission. But conservative think tanks say taxpayer-funded spaces should not be allowed to promote ideologies they say are divisive.
Park Service employees and groups that operate national park gift shops say it’s not clear what items will be banned. They did not want to speak on the record for fear of retaliation.
“Our goal is to keep national parks focused on their core mission: conserving natural and cultural resources for the benefit of all Americans,” the Interior Department said in a statement. The agency said it wants to ensure that gift shops in the parks “do not promote specific viewpoints.”
Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, said removing history books and other merchandise from gift shops amounts to “silencing science and hiding history,” and does not serve the interests of park visitors.
Other groups have described reviewing gift shops as a waste of resources at one time Staff shortageMaintenance backlogs and budget problems.
Stefan Padfield, a former law professor who now works with a conservative think tank in Washington, said there is no way to defend the government’s promotion of “extremist and divisive” ideologies through the sale of books and other items, though he said the challenge for the Trump administration will be in defining what is acceptable and what is not.
“Now, are there going to be instances of over-correction? Are there going to be difficult exercises in drawing lines in gray areas? Absolutely,” said Padfield, executive director of the Free Enterprise Project at the National Center for Public Policy Research.
All items for sale in the parks and online are supposed to be reviewed to ensure they are unbiased. This includes books, t-shirts, keychains, magnets, patches, and even pens.
But the memo from a senior Home Office official did not provide any examples of items that could no longer be sold, leaving the matter open to interpretation. No training courses are offered to park service employees.
Some parks had already completed their review and found nothing to add to the list.
The items on display were put on display this week at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia Frederick Douglass. At the Martin Luther King Jr. Store in the National Historical Park in Atlanta, there were various books about the civil rights movement and a children’s book about important black women in U.S. history. For sale online was a metal token of the Belmont Bowl National Women’s Equality Memorial.
A comprehensive process already exists for vendors to get merchandise into national park stores. Items are inspected for educational value and to ensure they match the theme of the park or historic site.
In recent weeks, the park service faced criticism when it stopped Offering free entry For visitors on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, with a benefit for US residents on Flag Day, which also falls on Trump’s birthday next year.
Earlier this year, the Interior Ministry ordered the parks to be flagged Signs, exhibits and other materials She said mocking the Americans. This also included books on Native American history and a photo in a Georgia park that showed the scars of a formerly enslaved man.
In one of his Executive ordersTrump said the nation’s history is being unfairly recast through a negative lens. Instead, he wants to focus on the positive aspects of America’s achievements, along with the beauty and grandeur of its natural landscapes.
Micah Meyer knows this beauty well after a three-year road trip visiting all 419 national park sites. He said part of the mission of his trips, which he shared on social media and in a documentary, was to make clear that the parks welcome the LGBTQ+ community.
That message resonates with his company, Outside Safe Space, which at its peak sold stickers and pins featuring a tree with triangular, rainbow-colored branches to more than 20 associations that ran multiple stores in the parks. He began withdrawing his items from some stores after executive orders were issued earlier this year.
“How does banning these items support freedom of expression?” Mayer said.