Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland released a promotional video Monday in which she speaks with an environmentalist drag queen at the Stonewall National Monument.
Haaland and “Pattie Gonia” met up at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City to observe the start of National LGBTQ History Month and discuss how monuments like Stonewall “help tell our country’s full and honest story,” according to Haaland’s tweet promoting the video. “Pattie Gonia” is a self-described “professional homosexual” and “queer environmentalist” who appeared in a May advertisement for The North Face, a popular producer of outdoor gear and apparel.
“Tell me, in your own words, why places like this, like Stonewall, are so important to telling America’s story,” Haaland asked of “Pattie Gonia,” who dressed in knee-high leather boots and a female park ranger’s uniform for the video.
To celebrate LGBT History Month, I joined outdoor advocate and climate movement icon @pattiegonia to discuss how places like @StonewallNPS help tell our country’s full and honest story. pic.twitter.com/XSIGs1qz9z
— Secretary Deb Haaland (@SecDebHaaland) October 2, 2023
“I think it’s because queer rights are more under attack than ever, and I think if we don’t acknowledge the past, we are bound to repeat it,” “Pattie Gonia” said. “So, at a place like Stonewall, it’s a beautiful place, it’s a place where so much discrimination and hatred occurred against the queer community, but it’s also a place where resistance and queer joy and queer liberation happened.”
October is National LGBTQ History Month, and comes four months after Pride Month, which is observed each year in June, according to the University of Central Florida. Former President Barack Obama’s administration established the Stonewall National Park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City in 2016, and it is under the administration of the National Park Service.
“I’m so glad that readers of the Daily Caller will have the opportunity to learn more about equity and America’s public lands through our series on social media,” Melissa Schwartz, a spokesperson for the Department of the Interior (DOI), told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The DOI “protects and manages the Nation’s natural resources and cultural heritage; provides scientific and other information about those resources; and honors its trust responsibilities or special commitments to American Indians, Alaska Natives and affiliated Island Communities,” according to the agency’s website.
The White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Nick Pope on October 3, 2023
