The New York City Council on Tuesday pressured the National Park Service to restore the Pride flag at Stonewall National Monument, escalating a dispute that has turned one of the most hallowed sites in LGBTQ+ history into a new battleground with the Trump administration.
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in letter Led by City Council President Julie Menin and sent to federal authorities, council members argued that removing the flag from the monument’s Christopher Park grounds would strip the site of a symbol inseparable from its meaning. They write that Stonewall is not an abstract lesson in civics, but a place where queer New Yorkers fought back against police raids in 1969, sparking the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.
“The events there fueled a global movement for dignity, equality, and freedom, the guiding principles on which our nation was founded. The Pride flag has long been flown as a symbol of that struggle and the resilience of communities that continue to fight for their fundamental rights,” the letter said.
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The privately owned Stonewall Inn, across the street from the federally managed monument, continues to fly the pride flag. Local organizers have announced a protest starting at 5pm on Tuesday evening at monuments around Christopher Park, where Stonewall’s history has always been contested and claimed.
New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani added to the chorus of condemnation, calling the flag removal an attempt to erase history. “I am outraged by the removal of the Rainbow Pride flag from Stonewall National Monument,” Mamdani said in a statement. “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 an obligation to not only honor this legacy, but to live up to it. I will always fight for a New York City that invests in our LGBTQ+ community, protects their dignity, and protects all of our neighbors, without exception.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader who represents New York, said the decision needs to be reversed immediately.
“Removing the Pride rainbow flag from Stonewall National Monument is an outrageous act and must be done away with now,” Schumer said in a statement. defender. “Stonewall is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement, a landmark to which symbols of that heritage belong both historically and in principle. New Yorkers are right to be outraged, but if there’s one thing I know about this latest attempt to rewrite history, stoke division and discrimination, and erase the pride of our community, it’s this: That flag will return. New Yorkers will protect it.”
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The Trump administration, through the Interior Department, said the decision reflects long-standing rules governing flags flown on National Park Service flagpoles.
In a statement previously provided, defender, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s office said that under government-wide guidance, “with limited exceptions, only the U.S. flag and other Congressional or departmental authorized flags will be flown on NPS-managed flagpoles,” and that any changes would be made to ensure consistency with that policy. The ministry added that Stonewall’s history will continue to be preserved and interpreted through exhibits and programs.
For city leaders and LGBTQ+ advocates, that distinction is beside the point. At Stonewall, they argue, the flag is not decoration, but part of the living language of the place, a visible marker of the community whose resistance made the place historic in the first place.
The letter follows pushback from New York City officials and national advocacy groups, including the National LGBTQ Task Force, the Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD, who say the removal is part of a broader effort to narrow the representation of LGBTQ+ history on federal lands.
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The concerns are not abstract. Last year, the National Park Service quietly removed references to transgender and queer people from the monument’s federal website and replaced “LGBTQ+” with “LGB,” a change that sparked protests and condemnation from activists and Democratic lawmakers. Bisexual advocates have also criticized the site’s official materials for omitting bisexual and pansexual identities from the story of the uprising. Critics say each revision has made Stonewall’s history a little smaller and easier to contain.
These changes follow President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order titled “Restore Truth and Sanity to American History,” which directs federal agencies to review monuments, monuments, and exhibits to remove what the administration calls “inappropriate ideology” and emphasize a more “patriotic” account of the past. Supporters describe the order as a corrective. Opponents see this as an invitation to sand the edges of history, especially regarding race, gender and sexuality.
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
