A rainbow Pride flag has been removed from the Stonewall National Monument in Greenwich Village because of a directive from the Trump administration — outraging LGBTQ New Yorkers and local elected officials.
Apparently following orders from a Jan. 21 memo from the U.S. Department of the Interior, the large Pride flag was removed from the monument in Christopher Park near the Stonewall Inn over the weekend, according to local elected officials.
“I am outraged by the removal of the Rainbow Pride Flag,” Mayor Mamdani said on social media. “New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history.”
The federal memo notes that flagpoles and buildings under the jurisdiction of the U.S. General Services Administration, including at the Stonewall monument, “are not intended to serve as a forum for free expression by the public.”
“Only the U.S. flag, flags of the Department of the Interior, and the POW/MIA flag will be flown by the National Park Service in public spaces where the NPS is responsible for the upkeep, maintenance, and operation of the flag and flagpole,” the memo states.
Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal said that he and other local, state and federal officials plan to raise a rainbow flag back up the flagpole in protest Thursday. He noted the Trump administration previously removed references to transgender people from the Stonewall National Monument’s government website.
“I really think this is about standing up for the future of the LGBTQ community, just as those Stonewall veterans back in 1969 did the same,” Hoylman-Sigal said. “To me, it’s deeply personal as an out LGBTQ elected official, but also as a parent. What lesson are we sending to our young people about their family members, their parents, their friends at school or themselves?”
A spokesman for the National Park Service said in a statement that the removal was in line with longstanding rules.
“The policy governing flag displays on federal property has been in place for decades,” the statement said. “Recent guidance clarifies how that longstanding policy is applied consistently across NPS-managed sites.”
“Stonewall National Monument continues to preserve and interpret the site’s historic significance through exhibits and programs,” the statement adds.
There are “limited exceptions” to the rule, according to the statement. Nonagency flags can be flown “for a specific special occasion” or “as an expression of the federal government’s official sentiments,” the memo said.
No flags were flying on the poles at the Stonewall National Monument on Tuesday, although several small Pride flags were peppered around the park.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the removal of the flag a “deeply outrageous action that must be reversed right now.”
“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 our community pride, it’s this: That flag will return,” he added. “New Yorkers will see to it.”
The Stonewall National Monument visitor center was open Tuesday, but workers declined to comment on the new directive.
Stonewall was designated a national monument by President Barack Obama in 2016. The riot at the Stonewall Inn in 1969 is recognized as the beginning of the LGBTQ movement in the U.S.
Longtime Village resident Mimi McGurl, 62, was stunned by what she saw as a smack in the face to the LGBTQ community.
“This is our home,” she said. “This is where we can feel safe and comfortable. And, I think that’s not what his administration wants. I don’t think they want us to ever feel safe and comfortable, unless we’re in a closet.”
Julie Muzina, a trans woman from Buffalo, just signed a lease on an apartment near Christopher Park, partly because the monument was nearby.
“This [whole area] is like a symbol of love,” Muzina, 26, told the Daily News as she looked over the park. “[Now] there’s like a gaping hole in the middle of it.”
“We’re still here. We’re not going anywhere,” she added. “You’re removing a flag in an area that is just going to be louder because you’ve done it.”
City Council Speaker Julie Menin said the removal of the pride flag “is a deliberate and cowardly attempt to erase” the history of the LGBTQ movement.
“This is an attack on LGBTQ+ New Yorkers, and we will not stand for it,” Menin (D-Manhattan) wrote on X. “Our history will not be rewritten, and our rights will not be rolled back.”
