Pride Flag Removed From Stonewall Monument at Trump’s Directive
The move comes a year after the National Park Service scrubbed mentions of queer and trans people from its website, prompting protests at the NYC landmark.
A large Pride flag was quietly removed from New York City's Stonewall National Monument yesterday, February 9, after a directive from the Trump administration, marking an alarming continuation of the federal government's attacks on LGBTQ+ people.
The historic Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan commemorates the eponymous 1969 uprising credited with spurring the modern gay rights movement in the United States. The landmark, which includes Christopher Park and the famous Stonewall Inn, where groups led by trans women of color protested routine police raids and harassment, was designated a national monument by President Barack Obama in 2016.
A spokesperson for the National Park Service (NPS), which oversees the landmark, confirmed in a statement to Gay City News that the agency had taken the flag down in compliance with a new government order. The guidance, issued in January, states that “only the US flag and other congressionally or departmentally authorized flags are flown on NPS-managed flagpoles, with limited exceptions,” the NPS said.
Almost exactly a year ago, local advocates responded with outrage after the NPS scrubbed references to transgender and queer people from its website for the Stonewall monument. The NPS also removed a list of flags associated with the LGBTQ+ movement, including the Trans Pride flag, and information about when the flags are typically flown in the Lower Manhattan park.
But many viewed this week's removal of the traditional six-color Pride flag, arguably the most universally recognized emblem of LGBTQ+ rights, as a worrisome escalation. Originally designed by Gilbert Baker as an eight-color banner, the rainbow Pride flag was first raised during San Francisco’s historic Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978.
“As a nonbinary person myself, I take this very seriously,” said a visitor at the park today, a local resident who asked to be identified as Alex.
“Even though you know that something like this is going to happen, that they're going further and continuing to specifically target trans people, in my head this feels like it's going too far,” Alex told Hyperallergic. “Because the whole point of this space was to honor LGBTQ history.”
Activists, including photographer Steven Love Menendez and LGBTQ+ advocate Michael Petrelis, fought for years to hoist a permanent Pride flag at the park, which partly sits on federal land. They finally secured approval for the installation in 2022, during the Biden administration, after President Trump nixed the plan during his first term.
While city-owned parts of the park have flown a Pride flag featuring additional colors and stripes honoring trans people and the Black and brown LGBTQ+ community, Menendez told Gay City News last year that only the traditional rainbow flag was allowed to fly on federal property.
President Trump has consistently threatened the rights and dignity of LGBTQ+ people during his second term, targeting trans and non-binary individuals in particular. On the day of his inauguration, he signed an executive order requiring the government to define gender as a male-female binary, excluding expansive gender identities. With Republican support, Trump has also banned trans athletes from women’s sports and restricted healthcare for trans youth, among other actions.
In an interview today, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal said he would push back against NPS's compliance with Trump's directive, and promised that the Pride flag would rise at Stonewall National Monument once again.
Despite the heavy overcast clouds, people were scattered throughout Christopher Park early this afternoon, some sitting in contemplation, seemingly drawn to the landmark by the news of the flag's removal. Two visitors, a couple named Kevin and Katie who said they were visiting from Yorkshire, England, told Hyperallergic that they both believed the US government's intervention in the Pride flag display was “wrong.”
Another visitor, who identified herself as Mimi from New York, decried the rainbow flag's removal as “disgusting,” “shameful,” and “homophobic.”
“These are people just like us; they're people's brothers and sisters. That our administration can't see and honor that makes me sick,” she said.
Hrag Vartanian contributed reporting.
