Posted on 09/08/2005 8:58:34 PM PDT by lunarbicep
SAN FRANCISCO - After city officials rejected a plan to bring the USS Iowa to San Francisco earlier this year, supporters of the idea have come up with a new plan that they hope will convince leaders to welcome the historic battleship here.
Supporters say a proposal to turn part of the vessel into a museum honoring the contributions of gays, lesbians, ethnic minorities and women to the military should help sway the Board of Supervisors' decision.
In July, the board voted 8-3 to oppose taking in the ship, citing local opposition to the Iraq war and the military's stance on gays, among other things.
But local veterans groups and history buffs have rallied hard for the Iowa, which served in battles since World War II, carried President Franklin Roosevelt home from the Teheran conference of allied leaders and suffered one of the nation's most deadly military accidents in 1989 when 47 sailors were killed in an explosion during a training exercise.
"I think the Iowa could be a very powerful teaching tool regarding recruitment and U.S. defense policy," said Merylin Wong, president of the Historic Ship Memorial at Pacific Square, the San Francisco organization lobbying for the ship.
Even if the board approves the proposal, San Francisco still must bid against Stockton, where city officials already welcome it.
The idea of a museum about the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding gays also may not sit well with Navy officials.
Jack Green, a spokesman for the Navy Historical Society, which evaluates exhibits that appear on board donated ships, said an exhibit about a controversial defense policy would need approval from the secretary of the Navy.
"That sort of thing would be judged on a case-by-case basis," Green said. "None of the (exhibits) I know of deal with social issues."
Steve Boeckels, a local gay activist who helped come up with the idea for the museum, said he's seeking support from civil rights organizations.
"This is an opportunity for San Francisco to be first in displaying the value of acceptance for minorities and others who have sacrificed their lives for this country," said the 31-year-old Boeckels, who was discharged from the Army under "don't ask, don't tell" in 2000.
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The Good Ship Lollipop!
* TAP * * TAP * * TAP *
Ahem. Is this thing on?
Attention, San Francisco, this is God. 12.0 coming your way riiiiiight aboooooooooout NOW!
Oh PUKE! I resent the way women are lumped in with some of the others in that group. Why don't we just take everyone on their own merit and forget about the racial, sexist, homophobic, etc. blather?
I agree with ncountylee on post #2
Oh yeah, like that is going to happen.
Exactly! out of spite I would rather see her a fish habitat than a tool for the homosexual agenda..
Oh, how disgusting. Why do homosexuals think that forcing their "agenda" on people will make it more acceptable? It makes it more repugnant, to me.
WTH, is everything about these people penises and anuses.
"Y'see, it was long, hard, and full of seamen...."
I thought the queer capital of the US had lost it rights and the USS Iowa was going up river?
It's ALWAYS about SEX for them, isn't it...because if it wasn't.....no one would think twice about WHO they slept with.
Thank You. I agree, but I actually had to calm down before I was able to come to the same conclusion.
....guys who did their sisters, those who like the cool, cooperating bodies of the dead, those who had "hairy girlfriends" in their neighbors barn, those who get off licking woman's shoes.......
What is it with the left wing lunatic fringe and their obsession with dysfunctional sex?
I can imagine how the normal people in the military must feel about this. I'll bet they're livid. Why don't they just sink the ship and let it die with it's respect? It's better than defiling it's honor like this.
Jesus said: "And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore, they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." -from THE BIBLE: Matthew 19:4-6
I'd rather see USS Iowa turned into razor blades than become a gay monument.
Wow, I know how gays and lesbians are similar, but how are they similar to ethnic minorities, and how are they all similar to women?
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