08 Aug 2005 Battleship Iowa to House Gay Museum?

Will the Battleship Iowa soon house (free registration required) a museum dedicated to “lesbian, gay, bisexual [and] transgender[ed]” veterans?

The Historic Ship Memorial at Pacific Square, a group that is trying to convince the city of San Francisco to exhibit the Iowa, hopes putting such a museum on the Iowa will attract the interest of San Francisco’s board of supervisors. In July, the board voted against exhibiting the Iowa, citing (given that we are talking about San Francisco) utterly predictable political reasons.

The Iowa, which has earned 11 battle stars, was first commissioned in 1943 and most recently decommissioned in 1990. She saw significant action in World War II. She carried President Roosevelt part of the way to the Teheran Conference and then saw action in the Pacific Theatre, including in the Marshall Islands and Okinawa and the Battle for Leyte Gulf. She served as Admiral William F. Halsey’s flagship during the Japanese surrender ceremony (60 years ago last Friday). She saw action in the Korean War and in the Mediterranean, and was decommissioned in 1958, only to be recommissioned in 1984 as part of President Reagan’s expansion of the Navy. In 1989, the Iowa received national attention when tragedy struck: A never-fully-explained explosion in one of her nine 16-inch gun turrets killed 47 sailors.

The Iowa remains part of the U.S. Navy’s Reserve Fleet.