No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms.

I would like to thank Amy Ridenour at National Center Blog for helping me find the story, oringinally at www.kitsapsun.com but now also available at San Fransico Chronicle.

The ship is currently moored in Suisun Bay, and if San Francisco decides to pass on the Iowa, the ship may find a home in Stockton, CA, where city leaders jumped at the chance to port the ship when San Fran first turned its nose up.

Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, wants the ship to come to Stockton, while Sen. Diane Feinstein, a Democrat and a former San Fransico mayor, wants it in San Francisco. Senator Feinstein helped raise the $3 million to have the Iowa towed from Rhode Island in the first place.

Merylin Wong, president of the Historic Ship Memorial at Pacific Square (the San Francisco organization lobbying for the ship), notes;

There's a tremendous amount of archives documenting the contribution of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) veterans... It's all part of naval history, and it's all fact.

I don't dispute this at all, and as a veteran of the Navy, I would not in any way resent or oppose a museum that focused on this aspect of the history of the gay community. But it would be inappropriate to house such a museum on the Iowa or any other Navy ship so long as homosexuals are not permitted to serve openly. If San Francisco doesn't want to port the Iowa without making it the focal point of a divisive political issue, then send the ship to Stockton, where it can instead serve as a museum to all servicemembers, and to itself.