The Trump administration has removed a Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument in New York City, in the latest attack against LGBTQ+ rights and inclusion.
Designated by President Barack Obama in 2016, the national monument commemorates the 1969 Stonewall Riots, a pivotal moment in the history of the queer liberation movement. The riots saw patrons of popular queer venue Stonewall Inn fight back against a police raid. The monument has become a symbol of LGBTQ+ Pride and resistance in the face of oppression.
In recent days, the Pride flag that used to fly on a flagpole on the monument’s site was quietly removed, following guidance issued by the Trump administration. A memo from the interior department stated that “procedures for the display and flying of non-agency flags and pennants” establish that only US flags, agency flags and the POW/MIA flag are allowed to be displayed at national parks.
The flagpoles, the memo further stated, are “not intended to serve as a forum for free expression by the public. Rather, approved non-agency flags and pennants may be flown as an expression of the Federal Government’s official sentiments.”
Confirming that the Pride flag had been removed from the site, Manhattan borough president Brad Hoylman-Sigal condemned the decision on social media. “They cannot erase our history. Our Pride flag will be raised again,” Hoylman-Sigal stated.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani also vehemently denounced the Trump administration’s decision, stating: “I am outraged by the removal of the Rainbow Pride Flag from Stonewall National Monument.”
“New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history.”
He added, “Our 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—without exception.”
Senate minority leader from New York, Chuck Schumer, also criticised the move, saying: “The removal of the Pride Rainbow Flag from the Stonewall National Monument is a deeply outrageous action that must be reversed right now.”
He continued: “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 Yorkers will see to it.”
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