{"id":129216,"date":"2026-02-10T20:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/129216\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T20:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:41:07","slug":"schumer-nyc-leaders-demand-pride-flag-restored-at-stonewall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/129216\/","title":{"rendered":"Schumer, NYC leaders demand Pride flag restored at Stonewall"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York City<\/a> Council on Tuesday pressed the National Park Service to restore the Pride<\/a> flag at the Stonewall<\/a> National Monument, escalating a dispute that has turned one of the most hallowed sites in LGBTQ+<\/a> history into a fresh battleground with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ<\/a>+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate’s email newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n

In a letter<\/a> led by Council Speaker Julie Menin<\/a> and sent to federal officials, council members argued that removing the flag from the monument\u2019s Christopher Park grounds strips the site of a symbol inseparable from its meaning. Stonewall, they wrote, is not an abstract lesson in civics but the place where, in 1969, queer New Yorkers fought back against a police raid and helped ignite the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe events that took place there catalyzed a global movement for dignity, equality, and freedom \u2014 guiding principles upon which our nation was founded. The Pride flag has long flown as a symbol of that struggle and of the resilience of a community that continues to fight for its basic rights,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n

Related: Trump erased trans & queer history from Stonewall. Lawmakers are fighting to get it back<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: National Park Service removes pages for transgender activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: After trans people, Trump now erases bisexual people from Stonewall National Monument<\/a><\/p>\n

Across the street from the federally managed monument, the privately owned Stonewall Inn continues to fly Pride flags. Local organizers have announced a protest for Tuesday evening at 5 p.m. at the monument around Christopher Park, where Stonewall\u2019s history has always been contested and claimed.<\/p>\n

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> added to the growing chorus of condemnation, calling the flag\u2019s removal an attempt to erase history. \u201cI am outraged by the removal of the Rainbow Pride Flag from Stonewall National Monument,\u201d Mamdani said in a statement. \u201cNew York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cOur city has a duty not just to honor this legacy, but to live up to it. I will always fight for a New York City that invests in our LGBTQ+ community, defends their dignity, and protects every one of our neighbors\u2014without exception.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer<\/a>, the Democratic<\/a> Senate minority leader who represents New York<\/a>, said the decision must be reversed immediately. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe removal of the Pride Rainbow Flag from the Stonewall National Monument is a deeply outrageous action that must be reversed right now,\u201d Schumer said in a statement to The Advocate. \u201cStonewall 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. New Yorkers are right to be outraged, but if there\u2019s one thing I know about this latest attempt to rewrite history, stoke division and discrimination, and erase our community pride it\u2019s this: that flag will return. New Yorkers will see to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: Protest set at NYC\u2019s Stonewall after Trump administration removes Pride flag from national LGBTQ+ monument<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: What you need to know about the Stonewall uprising, which began 55 years ago<\/a><\/p>\n

The Trump administration, through the Department of the Interior, has said the decision reflects long-standing rules governing which flags may fly on National Park Service flagpoles.<\/p>\n

In a statement previously provided to The Advocate, the office of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said that under government-wide guidance, \u201conly the U.S. flag and other congressionally or departmentally authorized flags are flown on NPS-managed flagpoles, with limited exceptions,\u201d and that any changes are made to ensure consistency with that policy. The department added that Stonewall\u2019s history would continue to be preserved and interpreted through exhibits and programs.<\/p>\n

To city leaders and LGBTQ+ advocates, that distinction misses the point. At Stonewall, they argue, the flag is not a decoration but part of the site\u2019s living language and a visible marker of the community whose resistance made the place historic in the first place.<\/p>\n

The letter builds on backlash from New York officials and national advocacy groups, including the National LGBTQ Task Force, Human Rights Campaign,<\/a> and GLAAD<\/a>, which have described the removal as part of a broader effort to narrow how LGBTQ+ history is presented on federal land.<\/p>\n

Related: Kamala Harris Makes Historic Visit to Stonewall Inn, Vows to Fight Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: No LGB without the T \u2014 queer community protests Trump’s transgender erasure at Stonewall<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>That concern is not abstract. Last year, the National Park Service quietly removed references to transgender<\/a> and queer people from the monument\u2019s federal website, replacing \u201cLGBTQ+\u201d with \u201cLGB,\u201d a change that prompted protests and condemnation from activists and Democratic<\/a> lawmakers. Bisexual advocates have also criticized the site\u2019s official materials for omitting bi and pansexual identities from the story of the uprising. Each revision, critics say, has made Stonewall\u2019s history a little smaller, a little easier to contain.<\/p>\n

Those changes followed a March 2025 executive order by President Donald Trump<\/a> titled \u201cRestoring Truth and Sanity to American History,\u201d which directs federal agencies to review monuments, memorials, and exhibits to remove what the administration calls \u201cimproper ideology\u201d and to emphasize a more \u201cpatriotic\u201d account of the past. Supporters describe the order as a corrective. Opponents see it as an invitation to sand down the edges of history, especially where race, gender, and sexuality are concerned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York City Council on Tuesday pressed the National Park Service to restore the Pride flag at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2065,651,153,55641,55642,55544,1360,55643,55644,9,24,55,54,56,55645,55646,55647,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-129216","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-chuck-schumer","9":"tag-democratic-party","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-doug-burgum","12":"tag-glaad","13":"tag-human-rights-campaign","14":"tag-lgbtq","15":"tag-national-lgbtq-task-force","16":"tag-national-park-service","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-city","19":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","20":"tag-new-york-city-news","21":"tag-ny","22":"tag-stonewall-inn","23":"tag-stonewall-national-monument","24":"tag-stonewall-uprising","25":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}