by Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer

The National Park Service pulled out of a flag-raising ceremony at the Stonewall National Monument in Greenwich Village on the same day Tony Perkins announced that Donald Trump would be the featured speaker at the 2017 Values Voter Summit.

The Stonewall event was scheduled for October 11, and was to have featured a rainbow flag and a speech by National Park Service director Barbara Applebaum. Applebaum dropped out at the last minute, organizers said, and the Park Service dropped its sponsorship of the event.

Ann Northrop, co-host of Gay USA, who presided over the ceremony, said, 'This is an unbelievably petty, sleazy, transparent bit of cruelty by the Trump administration. Evidently, we are so filthy to them and their right-wing supporters that they can't even be associated with a few yards of rainbow fabric.'

The event went on as scheduled without Applebaum or her agency.

According to Gay City News, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, whose department has jurisdiction over the National Park Service, ordered Park Service employees to certify that the flagpole adjacent to the Stonewall Inn was not technically on federal land so that no rainbow flag would be flying on US government property.

The Stonewall Inn and the adjacent eight acres were designated a national monument by President Obama to commemorate Pride Month 2016.

The same day that the Trump administration snubbed the Stonewall ceremony, Family Research Council boss Tony Perkins announced that Donald Trump would speak at the Values Voters Summit to be held October 13 through 15.

Also on the Values Voters agenda are House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.); Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), Mark Walker (R-N.C.), and Chris Smith (R-N.J.); Dr. Bill Bennett; Dana Loesch; 'Duck Dynasty's' Phil Robertson; Laura Ingraham; Todd Starnes; Dr. Sebastian Gorka; Steve Bannon; former judge Roy Moore; and Lt. Col. Oliver North.

 Share on Facebook

Share on MySpace!

    Share on Delicious

Share on StumbleUpon!