Settlement Confirms Pride Flag Falls Within Federal Policy; NPS Must Rehang Flag Within Seven Days\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lambda Legal and\u00a0Washington Litigation Group announced today that their clients\u2014Gilbert Baker Foundation,\u00a0Village Preservation, and Equality New York\u2014secured\u00a0a court-enforceable settlement that requires the National Park Service (\u201cNPS\u201d) to restore the Pride flag at\u00a0the\u00a0Stonewall National Monument\u00a0in New York City.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In February, the federal government removed the Pride flag from the\u00a0Stonewall National Monument, the\u00a0first\u00a0national monument dedicated to\u00a0LGBTQ+\u00a0rights and history.\u00a0\u00a0The government claimed that the removal was necessary to\u00a0comply with\u00a0official policy.\u00a0\u00a0Just eight days later,\u00a0Lambda Legal and\u00a0WLG\u00a0sued, arguing that the government\u2019s actions\u00a0illegally targeted the LGBTQ+ community\u00a0because the\u00a0government\u2019s\u00a0policy\u00a0contains\u00a0an exemption for flags that provide historical context\u2014just like\u00a0the Pride flag does at Stonewall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the\u00a0settlement,\u00a0the government\u00a0agrees\u00a0to\u00a0rehang the Pride flag\u00a0on\u00a0the monument\u2019s official flagpole within seven days and\u00a0maintain\u00a0it permanently.\u00a0Critically, the\u00a0agreement\u00a0confirms\u00a0that\u00a0the Pride flag\u00a0falls within\u00a0the\u00a0law and NPS policy,\u00a0vindicating the central\u00a0argument\u00a0plaintiffs made\u00a0in the suit.\u00a0The parties also agreed that the court will\u00a0retain\u00a0jurisdiction\u00a0to enforce the stipulation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sudden, arbitrary, and capricious removal of the Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument was yet another act by this administration to erase the LGBTQ+ community,\u201d said\u00a0Karen Loewy, co-counsel for plaintiffs and Senior Counsel & Director of Constitutional Law Practice, Lambda Legal. \u201cToday, the government has pledged to restore this important symbol back to where it belongs.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a complete victory for our clients and for the LGBTQ+ community,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Alexander\u00a0Kristofcak, lead counsel for plaintiffs and a lawyer with Washington Litigation Group.\u00a0\u201cThe government has acknowledged what we argued from day one: the Pride flag belongs\u00a0at\u00a0Stonewall. The flag will be\u00a0restored\u00a0and\u00a0it will fly officially and permanently.\u00a0And we will remain vigilant to ensure that the government\u00a0sticks to the deal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGilbert Baker created the Rainbow Pride flag as a symbol of hope and liberation,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Charles Beal, President of\u00a0The Gilbert Baker Foundation.\u00a0\u201cToday, that symbol is restored to the place where it belongs,\u00a0standing watch over the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government tried to erase\u00a0an important symbol of the LGBTQ+ community, and the community said no,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Amanda Babine, Executive Director of Equality New York.\u00a0\u201cToday\u2019s\u00a0accomplishment\u00a0proves that when we stand together and fight back, we win.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe removal of the Pride flag from Stonewall was an attempt to erase LGBTQ+ history and undermine the rule of law,\u201d said\u00a0Andrew Berman, Executive Director of Village Preservation. \u201cThis settlement restores both.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
With Karen L. Loewy on the complaint are, Douglas F. Curtis, Camilla B. Taylor, Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, Kenneth D. Upton, Jr., Jennifer C. Pizer, and\u00a0Nephetari\u00a0Smith from Lambda Legal.\u00a0With Alexander\u00a0Kristofcak*\u00a0on the complaint are Mary L. Dohrmann, Sydney Foster, Kyle Freeny, James I. Pearce, and Nathaniel Zelinsky from WLG.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Settlement Confirms Pride Flag Falls Within Federal Policy; NPS Must Rehang Flag Within Seven Days\u00a0 Lambda Legal and\u00a0Washington…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-195644","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-ny"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195644","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=195644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}