Lambda Law Firm and Washington Litigation Group filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the Trump-Vance administration’s removal of the Pride flag from New York’s Stonewall National Monument earlier this month.
suitThe lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, asks the court to rule that the removal of the Pride flag at Stonewall National Monument is unconstitutional under the Administrative Procedure Act and demands its restoration.
national park service A memorandum has been issued On January 21, restrictions were placed on the national flags that can be flown within national parks. The directive was signed by Jessica Bowron, President Trump’s appointee to lead the National Park Service.
“Current Department of the Interior policy states that the National Park Service is only authorized to display the United States flag, the Department of the Interior flag, and the POW/MIA flag on flagpoles and public display areas,” the letter from the National Park Service said. “This policy allows for limited exceptions and allows non-governmental flags when they serve an official purpose.”
That “official purpose” is what Lambda Legal and the Washington Litigation Group hope the justices will agree to — that it justifies flying the Pride flag at Stonewall National Monument, the birthplace of the LGBTQ rights movement in the United States.
Plaintiffs include the Gilbert Baker Foundation, Charles Beale, Village Preservation, and Equality New York.
Defendants include Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. Bowron. Amy Sebring, National Park Service Manhattan Site Manager.
“The government’s decision is deeply disturbing and is just the latest example of the Trump administration’s targeting of the LGBTQ+ community,” said Alexander Kristofcak, an attorney with the Washington Litigation Group, lead attorney for the plaintiffs. “That’s exactly what the Pride flag does. It provides important context for a monument honoring a turning point in LGBTQ+ history. At best, the government misread the regulations. At worst, it singled out the LGBTQ+ community. In either case, the government’s actions are illegal.”
“Stonewall is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement,” said Gilbert Baker Foundation President Beall. The foundation’s mission is to preserve and promote the legacy of Gilbert Baker, the founder of the Pride flag.
“The Pride flag is globally recognized as a symbol of hope and liberation for the LGBTQ+ community, whose efforts and resistance define this monument. In fact, removing it would erase that history and the voice that Stonewall honored,” Beal added.
The APA was first established in 1946 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt created several new government agencies under the New Deal. As these agencies began to gain foothold, Congress became increasingly concerned that the expanding powers of these self-governing federal agencies would become too great without regulation.
79th Congress passed bill This is to minimize the scope of these new institutions and provide guardrails for their work. The APA outlines four goals. 1) Require government agencies to keep the public informed about their organization, procedures, and rules. 2) Provide for public participation in the rulemaking process, including through public comment. 3) establish uniform standards for formal rulemaking and adjudication; 4) Define the scope of judicial review.
In layman’s terms, the APA was designed “to avoid dictatorship and central planning,” as George Shepard described its function in the 1996 Northwestern Law Review.
Lambda Legal and the Washington Litigation Group argue that flying the flag at Stonewall National Monument is not justified and that the directive is not only outdated, but that the National Park Service violated the APA by circumventing the second element outlined in the law.
“The Pride flag at Stonewall National Monument celebrates the history of the struggle for LGBTQ+ liberation. It is an integral part of the story this site was created to tell,” Douglas F. Curtis, chief legal advocacy officer at Lambda Legal, said in a statement. “This removal shows that the Trump administration continues to ignore what the law actually requires in its endless campaign to target our communities for erasure, and we will not let this stand.”
The Washington Blade reached out to NPS for comment but did not receive a response.
Source: Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News – www.washingtonblade.com
