The National Park Service this week defended its decision to prohibit employees from wearing their official uniforms at Pride parades that celebrate the LGBTQ+ community.
Frank Lands, the agency’s deputy director and No. 2 official, told the nearly 20,000 NPS employees in a memo sent Monday that “approving participation in some events and not others could be seen as discrimination based on viewpoint, which we just cannot do.”
“While it may not feel like it, holding to our policy promotes equitable treatment of these requests,” he said in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News.
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Lands’ directive earlier this month about uniformed employees participating in Pride events was first reported Monday by E&E News.
