United States President Donald Trump’s administration removed a large Pride flag flying over Stonewall National Monument, which marks the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement in New York City.
The National Park Service, the federal agency that oversees U.S. national monuments, said it manages the monument’s flagpole and that the flag was removed to ensure that a ‘long-standing policy’ was applied consistently across all its locations.
But for some elected officials in New York, removing the flag from the monument in Greenwich Village in midtown Manhattan is part of efforts by Trump, a Republican, to limit the rights of gay and transgender people.
Continues after advertising
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat, said he was outraged and called the move an ‘act of erasure’. Some politicians have announced their intention to fly another Pride flag on the now-empty flagpole before the end of the week.
The Park Service said it followed guidance issued in 2023 that government-run flagpoles are not “a forum for public free expression” and that flags other than the American flag can be flown if they represent “an expression of the official sentiments of the federal government.”
“Any changes to the display of flags occur to ensure the consistency of this guidance,” the agency said in a statement.
The agency released a memo repeating the guidance to regional directors and superintendents last month.
The flagpole and monument are located in Christopher Park, marking the spot where gay, lesbian and transgender New Yorkers rioted and protested in response to a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in 1969, a time when such raids on bars frequented by LGBTQ+ people were common. The Stonewall uprising was a defining moment in the LGBTQ+ rights movement.
The site was designated a US national monument in 2016 by then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat, at an intersection that remains a bustling hub of LGBTQ+ nightlife.
Continues after advertising
Trump and other Republican politicians have sought to restrict LGBTQ+ rights, especially those of transgender people. Trump has ordered his agencies to adopt a policy that there are two immutable sexes, and all mentions of ‘LGBT’ on the Stonewall monument’s official website have been replaced with ‘LGB’.
The flag was removed Sunday night or early Monday morning, Gay City News reported Monday.
Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal said the removal was ‘a deliberate attack on the LGBTQ+ community.’
Continues after advertising
The National Park Service did not respond to questions about what it would do if New Yorkers raised another rainbow flag over the monument, as Hoylman-Sigal and others said they intend to do Thursday.
“We think the worst outcome would be prison, but this is in keeping with the spirit of Stonewall itself,” Hoylman-Sigal said.
‘The movement was founded on the basis of rebellion against the authorities.’
Continues after advertising
