US Park Service pulls human rights activist Pauli Murray page after Trump’s 2-gender order
A web page about the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray, a human rights leader who grew up in Durham, is among over a dozen online sites and references to LGBTQ+ history that have been removed from the National Park Service website.
Federal agencies are deleting government references to transgender people after President Donald Trump’s executive order that the country only recognize two genders: male and female.
Murray was a writer, Episcopal priest, feminist, LGBTQ activist and labor organizer and was the first Black person to earn a doctorate degree from Yale Law School.
The Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice uses she/her and they/them pronouns when describing Murray’s later life.
”We do not and can never know Murray’s gender identity — Pauli Murray described themself as a ‘he/she personality,’ requested hormone therapy, and also self-described as a woman,” according the center’s website.
Angela Thorpe Mason, the executive director of the center, criticized the National Park Service’s actions.
“We will not be deterred from uplifting Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray’s identity, life, and legacy as we work towards addressing today’s inequities and injustices,” Mason said in a written statement.
“We equally condemn the federal government’s actions, and stand firm in ours,” she continued. “The Pauli Murray Center will be a space for us to continue to articulate what we know to be true.”
While the National Park Service web page about Murray has been removed, and references to Murray’s transgender and queer identities have been deleted from other websites, a web page about Murray’s home on Durham’s Carroll Street remains up.
Murray moved to Durham’s historic West End neighborhood as a child. The home opened to the public in late 2024 as the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice after a 15-year restoration, The News & Observer reported.
Murray’s activism and legal expertise was instrumental in the Civil Rights Movement and in ending segregation.
The National Parks Conservation Association lists Murray, the Stonewall National Monument, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, among others, as web pages removed from the National Park Service’s website.
“From Marsha P. Johnson to Bayard Rustin to Harvey Milk, LGBTQ+ people have left an indelible mark on our country,” Alan Spears, the association’s senior director for cultural resources, said in a news release. “Without their leadership, the United States of America might look very different today. LGBTQ+ stories are part of our shared American inheritance, and these changes to the Park Service web page are nothing short of an attempt to erase history.”
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This story was originally published March 6, 2025 at 3:48 PM.
