A large Pride flag was removed from a flagpole at the Stonewall National Monument in Greenwich Village following a directive from the Trump administration issued last month.
The directive prohibits any flag, aside from the U.S. flag or other “authorized” flags, from being flown on National Park Service-managed flagpoles, “with limited exceptions,” the agency said in a statement.
What You Need To Know
A Pride flag was removed from the Stonewall National Monument after a directive from the Trump administration
Only U.S. flags and other “authorized” flags can now be flown at National Park Service locations
The Stonewall National Monument is designated as a National Historic Landmark by the NPS
“… The removal of the Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument is a deliberate and cowardly attempt to erase that history,” City Council Speaker Menin wrote on X
The Stonewall National Monument, which includes the historic Stonewall Inn bar, is managed by the National Park Service. The bar itself is privately run.
“Stonewall National Monument continues to preserve and interpret the site’s historic significance through exhibits and programs,” the agency said.
A number of New York elected officials quickly criticized the change.
“Stonewall is sacred ground. It is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and the removal of the Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument is a deliberate and cowardly attempt to erase that history,” City Council Speaker Julie Menin wrote on X in response to the flag’s removal.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, called the removal a “deeply outrageous action that must be reversed now.”
“Stonewall is a landmark because it is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement, and symbols of that legacy belong there by both history and principle,” he said in a statement. “New Yorkers are right to be outraged, but if there’s one thing I know about this latest attempt to rewrite history, stoke division and discrimination, and erase our community pride it’s this: that flag will return. New Yorkers will see to it.”
The move comes a year after the National Park Service removed references to “trans” and “queer” from the monument’s official website, saying it was complying with a Trump administration executive order proclaiming only two genders and an Interior Department memo eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Advocates rallied in Christopher Park at the time to protest.
Menin and the co-chairs of the City Council’s LGBTQIA+ Caucus have sent a letter to the National Park Service urging the agency to “immediately return the Pride flag to the Stonewall National Monument where it belongs.”
NY1 has reached out to the agency for comment on the letter.