Happy Pride Month! Join the British Ecological Society in this annual, global celebration as we share stories from STEM researchers who belong to the LGBTQ+ community.
In this post, Jill Love (she/her), PhD candidate at Tulane University of New Orleans, shares her perspectives as a field researcher on why Pride in National Parks is more than a frivolous celebration:
Last month, social media was ablaze with unexpected news from the U.S. National Parks Service (NPS). A memo issued by the NPS stated that park rangers in uniform were prohibited from participating or attending events “wherein the wearing of the uniform could be construed as agency support for a particular issue, position or political party,” effectively demarcating pride events as a political statement. I don’t pretend to know or understand all of the internal workings of NPS policies, but I do know that parks have celebrated Pride for many years in the past. Stonewall National Monument, the epicenter of the historic LGBTQ+ riots in 1969, is even part of the NPS roster. Fifty-five years after Stonewall, it’s hard to believe that things like this are still happening in 2024.
This unfavorable memo, which has since been walked back to give jurisdiction to Regional Directors of parks, sparked debate online as to whether Pride should be celebrated in or by National Parks at all. But Pride is so much more than rainbows and glitter, and for most, Pride is not celebrated to make a political statement. Pride is the foundation of a community and welcoming energy that queer folks often lack in public spaces, one that is inherently granted to cishet people in society. Pride is a month with celebrations and activities designed to be inclusive; at its best Pride is the antithesis to discrimination of minority groups.
Aside from just being a member of the LGBTQ+ community, this memo affected me in a uniquely personal way. This spring and summer, I’m conducting a fieldwork experiment in Yosemite National Park as part of my dissertation. I work in the Monkeyflower system on a species endemic to the Sierra Nevada mountain range, Mimulus laciniatus. My experiment entails transplanting lab-bred plants into low and high elevation experimental sites, testing for fitness effects of leaf shape and leaf shape plasticity. In doing this work, I transplanted myself across the country, from Louisiana to California, a beautiful yet new location for five months. It has been a rollercoaster of ups (the beauty of Yosemite, the excitement of a new experiment) and downs (missing my wife and friends, experimental mishaps).
This is reality for many field researchers, which when faced alone can be an isolating experience. Particularly for queer researchers in remote locations, the feeling of belonging somewhere is often limited by concerns of bigotry or discrimination. And while technology has made FaceTime a convenient proxy for face-to-face time with loved ones, sometimes it doesn’t fully bridge the gap carved by lonely days in the field. In these cases, fieldwork is an abrupt disconnection from our community and support system built within our home institution, removing our social safety net. Enter Pride: a place, sometimes the only place, where queer folks know they belong. A refreshing oasis of joy in a turbulent field season.
The NPS claims to be an inclusive entity, but I think more needs to be done to embrace Pride into their program of June activities. While I don’t expect the NPS to ever be an ambassador of LGBTQ+ rights, I do hope they will hold the bar off the floor above tolerance of the LGBTQ+ community. The infrastructure exists to make this possible through Special Emphasis Programs under the U.S. Department of the Interior, including an LGBTQ+ program as well as programs aimed toward AAPI and BIPOC folks. For all of the park employees and residents I’ve interacted with during my time in Yosemite, those people have been so heartwarmingly kind and helpful to me as a complete stranger. I know from them that the spirit of inclusivity lives in Yosemite, and my hope is that the NPS can improve upon its current stance of political neutrality to one that better reflects the nature of its employees. For queer field researchers far from home, Pride means so much more than its symbolism – it is a chance to belong.
Discover more stories from this year’s Pride Month blog series on the BES website.
If you would like to read more about inclusive fieldwork practices and how you can increase belonging in fieldwork in your research group, download the British Ecological Society’s guide to Safe Fieldwork for free here.
