Can You Be LGBTQ+ and Work in National Parks?

A few years ago in an online grad class, another student made a statement that floored me. “LGBTQ people can’t work in national parks,” she wrote. 

As a US national park ranger and a bisexual woman, I was confused and slightly offended. Was this woman saying I didn’t exist? That I shouldn’t have my job? 

For context, we had read a decade old piece written by a gay man who had a long career at state parks as a biologist and experienced significant homophobia at work. His story was tragic and upsetting.

Based on this man’s experience (which was decades prior and not in national parks), my fellow student made sweeping assumptions about national parks. She lamented that national parks didn’t accept anyone LGBTQ+ in their ranks and advised that no one who identified as such would feel safe or should even try working at one. 

The student was making some pretty big leaps with her logic, but, after my initial irritation, I realized that she was disturbed at the homophobia we’d read about and maybe wasn’t thinking clearly after. Perhaps she herself was LGBTQ+ and had always dreamed of working at a national park. And now here was someone throwing a bucket of homophobic water on the flames of her dreams. (Again, the author of the article didn’t even work at a national park, but whatever, I’m trying to be understanding here.)

I was glad the course was online because I had time to process my feelings and come up with a solution before responding. I realized that our professor, though well-intentioned, was falling into the trap of only relaying LGBTQ+ disaster stories. “You want representation? Here’s a story about someone who never fit in and was miserable their entire career. Feel represented!”

Now, I’m not suggesting we forget or not share stories of struggle. I was thrilled that this man had the courage to speak out about the harassment and bigotry he faced; often remembering and addressing the problems of the past can be the only way to move forward. But, as with any big problem (as a science educator I think about how demotivating an onslaught of terrifying facts about climate change can be, for example) just making people upset isn’t enough to incite action. You have to give them a little hope as well. 

So here’s my infusion of hopeful representation, which I shared with the class and with the pessimistic student: my experience in the National Park Service was the exact opposite of that man’s decades ago in his state parks and biologist circles.