ARTICLES
The following page is hub for the articles written by us. A short snippet of the article will be included along with the link to the site the article has been published on.
Out of the Closet and Into the Parks
We are Dustin Ballard and Michael Ryan, friends, co-creators, and co-hosts of Gaze at the National Parks, the Podcast, where we hike the trails of America’s national parks, one trail in one national park, one park at a time. And we couldn’t be more excited about being Hello Ranger Ambassadors, especially for the LGBTQ+ community. As members of this community and the outdoors community, we look forward to exploring the intersection of LGBTQ+ heritage and culture with our national parks and public lands.
Read more at Hello Ranger.
No Pride for Some of Us, Without Liberation for All of Us
What is Pride? It’s a question that seems especially poignant these last few years, with major victories and setbacks alike for LGBTQ+ people. At its core, Pride is a way to recognize, self affirm, and create greater visibility, and in turn, acceptance, for those within the queer community. While queer activism dates back to the mid-19th century, it was the Stonewall Riots in 1969 that helped propel queer history forward and create the modern Gay Pride Movement, recognized the world over. Stonewall, like Boston Harbor or Harpers Ferry before it, was merely the beginning of what would become a movement to fundamentally upend the status quo and propel the rights and equality of people forward.
Read more at Hello Ranger.
What’s at Stake?
As November swiftly approaches and we prepare for what will undoubtedly be an extremely contentious election season, we want to take a moment to pause and look around at the precise state of America at this moment in time. Aside from Supreme Court nominations, a democracy currently bending more and more towards authoritarianism, and a clear, concise plan when navigating a global pandemic, we wanted to examine what’s at stake—specifically, what’s at stake for two places of intersection for us personally: environmental conservation and LGBTQ+ inclusive policy.
Read more at Hello Ranger.
Patchwork of Rights
While the Constitutions’ Bill of Rights and subsequent Amendments lay out a swath of important laws and mandates for the citizens of the United States, they are broad and left open to the interpretation of the judicial branch. In fact, our rights as citizens cannot simply be defined in earnest by the Constitution alone. Using the guidance of the founding document, our laws are written on both the state and federal level, creating a patchwork of rights for the citizens of this country. This patchwork, ever growing, has been slow to recognize the rights of people who were neither white nor male. And despite the fact laws have been enacted to protect and endow greater rights to marginalized Americans, those rights have often not so easily been wrested from the hands of those in the majority.
Read more at Hello Ranger