NEW YORK – Defying the Trump administration’s edict, New York City officials and activists on February 12th re-raised the Rainbow Pride flag at Stonewall National Monument, the birthplace of the LGBTQ+ rights movement, after it was removed by the National Park Service over the weekend.
Located across from the historic Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, this national civil rights monument was dedicated in 2016 by former President Barack Obama.
One attendee tried to pull down the American flag next to it, while others chanted “take it down,” “burn the stars and stripes,” and others “we will not be erased.”
Local elected officials left shortly after the pride flag was raised and did not make any speeches.
Participants also hoisted a “progress flag” that included arrow-shaped stripes representing members of the trans community, communities of color, and people living with AIDS, atop the traditional LGBTQ+ rainbow flag.
The event attracted approximately 1,000 spectators and participants.
“The federal government is bullying transgender people.”
Chloe Elantari, a transgender woman who lives in the East Village, arrived at the 0.12-acre Christopher Park around noon, hours before the flag raising scheduled for 4 p.m.
“I’m here because the federal government is bullying transgender people by taking away the flag to distract from the heinous crimes that everyone at every level of government is committing against children,” he said, referring to the Jeffrey Epstein files. “They’re making us scapegoats. They’re blaming us.”
Elantari, a crisis counselor, came prepared for the day’s events.
“I brought my flag and I planted it here,” she said, pointing to a blue, pink and white striped transgender flag tied to a tree. “Because our colors need to be shown here at Stonewall.”
Erantari and other activists said they view the flag removal as the latest attack on transgender rights by the Trump administration aimed at marginalizing transgender people. Over the past year, the Trump administration has taken steps to limit minors’ access to gender-affirming care and restrict recognition of transgender identities in the federal and military fields. He cut federal funding, blocked Medicaid and Medicare from being used for gender-affirming care, and issued an executive order stating that the federal government only recognizes two genders: male and female. Another executive order banned transgender girls and women from participating in women’s sports.
The 1969 Stonewall Uprising was a turning point in civil rights gains for LGBTQ+ people. The incident began with a police raid on a nearby bar, where patrons fought back after decades of discrimination and harassment.
“History will not be erased,” Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman Segal announced on Instagram after the National Park Service removed the Rainbow Pride flag from the property.
On January 21, the Department of the Interior released guidelines for the display and display of “non-governmental flags and pennants” in the national park system. Exemptions listed in the memo include flags that “provide historical context, such as former U.S. flags on historic fortifications.”
Two weeks later, the rainbow flag that had flown from Christopher Park’s nautical flagpole was gone. The day before the planned re-raising of the flag, the NPS raised the Stars and Stripes on the voyage’s flagpole.
The White House did not comment on the flag’s removal, saying only that it would be “up to” the Department of the Interior.
Stonewall National Monument is a 7.7-acre site established by presidential proclamation in 2016. According to a fact sheet from the National Park Service, the monument includes public and private land, including the private Stonewall Inn, part of the New York City street system, and Christopher Park, which was donated to the federal government by New York City.
At the dedication ceremony on June 24, 2016, President Obama said, “Stonewall will be the first national monument to tell the story of the struggle for LGBT rights.”
The Pride flag was first flown here in 2018 when President Donald Trump was in office. During Pride Month, community volunteers contacted the National Park Service to ask if they could fly the Pride flag during the month. Approved.
But volunteer Steven Love Mendez, known in the community as “Caretaker,” asked NPS for permission to raise the flag by the end of the year, but his request was denied.
“The park maintained its status as a national landmark, but nothing visibly changed inside the park,” Mendez told USA TODAY. “It looked like the same park it was before it became a monument.”
Mendez made the request again under the Biden administration. This time, he was “surprised” that the NPS not only agreed to install a new flagpole, but also ordered a new rainbow flag with the NPS logo. The Pride flag had been flown continuously from February 2021, shortly after President Biden took office, until last week.
“It means so much to the community, young and old. It’s so sad, so heartless, so hateful that that flag was taken down. It wasn’t necessary, right?” Mendez said.
“That flagpole was put up there for the sole purpose of flying the rainbow flag,” activist Jay Walker said.
“The reality is that the entire garden area has been cared for by local residents even before it was designated a national landmark,” he says. “Donald Trump has broken in time and time again since his second inauguration. First, he changed his hours from 8 p.m. to 5 p.m. Now this.”
“We’re going to have to come up with other solutions, both as a city and as a state,” Walker said. “To take it back from the federal government.”
