After San
Francisco city officials rejected a plan to bring the USS
Iowa to the city earlier this year,
supporters of the idea have come up with a new plan that
they hope will convince local leaders to welcome the
historic battleship. 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 Tehran 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 the city of Stockton,
where city officials have already expressed a desire
to host the ship.
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. (AP)
