The Trump administration removed the rainbow-colored Pride flag from a flagpole outside the Stonewall National Monument, birthplace of the gay rights movement.
A National Park Service sign marks the Stonewall National Monument outside the Stonewall Inn, Monday, June 17, 2024, in New York. NEW YORK - The Trump administration removed the rainbow-colored Pride flag from a flagpole outside the Stonewall National Monument, outraging local leaders who called the decision an affront to the gay rights movement.
Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal said in a social media post late Monday that the flag had been removed over the weekend. Holyman-Sigal said he traced the decision to a Jan. 21 federal order by the Interior Department, which oversees the National Park Service. The order states that Park Service property should fly only the U.S. flag or those depicting official government logos. “They cannot erase our history,” Hoylman-Sigal said. “Our Pride flag will be raised again. Stay tuned.” The Stonewall Inn became the center of the gay rights movement after a riot erupted following a 1969 police raid at the Greenwich Village bar. Demonstrations continued for several days, as groups coalesced to form a nascent gay rights movement. A year later, the nation’s first gay pride march was held in New York, a celebration that spread to numerous cities throughout the 1970s. By the later part of the decade, gay rights activists had adopted a multicolored flag as a symbol of their movement. In 2016, under President Barack Obama, eight acres around the Stonewall Inn, including Christopher Park, became a national monument governed by the Park Service. It was the nation’s first national monument dedicated to the LGBTQ community. A visitors center, funded with private donations, opened next to the Stonewall Inn in 2024. Manhattan borough president Brad Hoylman-Sigal speaks in the Stonewall National Monument about how the Trump administration has stopped flying a rainbow flag at the location, right center, adjacent to the Stonewall Inn, left, New York, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. In a statement, the National Park Service said the policy on flying flags on federal property “has been in place for decades.”“Recent guidance clarifies how that longstanding policy is applied consistently across NPS-managed sites,” the statement said. “Any changes to flag displays are made to ensure consistency with that guidance.” The statement stressed that the monument “continues to preserve and interpret that site’s historic significance through exhibits and programs.”Last year, the National Park Service removed transgender and queer references from the website that commemorates the park. Instead of references to LGBTQ history, the website now mentions only “LGB” individuals, a reference to lesbians, gay men and bisexual people.At the time, the National Park Service said it was complying with an executive order from President Donald Trump that recognizes only two genders. Julie Menin, speaker of the New York City Council, called the removal of the Pride flag “a cowardly act to erase history.” “This is an attack on LGBTQ+ New Yorkers, and we will not stand for it,” Menin said. “Our history will not be rewritten, and our rights will not be rolled back.” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer , who represents New York, also called for the Pride flag to be immediately returned to the monument. “New Yorkers are right to be outraged,” Schumer said. “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 York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history,” Mamdani said. “Our city has a duty not just to honor this legacy but to live up to it.” In recent weeks, the National Park Service has implemented several controversial actions designed to minimize how marginalized communities are depicted on federal property. Last month, the Park Service removed a slavery exhibit at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. The exhibit showed the role enslaved people played at the President’s House, where George Washington lived. The city of Philadelphia, backed by surrounding jurisdictions and the state of Pennsylvania, filed a lawsuit against the Interior Department and the National Park Service.Mat-Su superintendent cites incorrect data in homeschool funding presentation after AI use
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