Biden-Harris Admin Spends $250K Looking for LGBT Landmarks as National Parks Fall Into Disrepair
29th August 2024
The National Park Service has doled out about $250,000 in taxpayer-funded grants to add LGBT landmarks to the National Register of Historic Places even as it faces a multibillion-dollar backlog maintaining the public land it oversees.
Through the National Park Service’s so-called Underrepresented Communities Grant Program, which was designed to diversify America’s historical landmarks to include more racial and sexual minorities, the government agency is paying several other agencies and nonprofits to seek out “historic” LGBT locations and submit applications for them to the National Register of Historic Places, government spending records show.
While the Park Service focused on ensuring that the gay community is represented equitably among designated historical locations, however, it faced an estimated $23.3 billion maintenance backlog during fiscal year 2023, which ended Sept. 30, according to a July report from the Congressional Research Service.