(The Center Square) — Democratic New York politicians are joining with LGBTQ groups in condemning a move by the Trump administration to remove a pride flag from Stonewall National Monument in New York City.
The rainbow flag was recently removed by the Interior Department under a 2023 federal directive restricting the kinds of flags that can be flown on National Park sites. Their department policy includes a few exceptions for historical flags, military flags, or flags of federally recognized Tribal nations within the parks.
“Flagpoles at buildings under the jurisdiction, custody, or control of DOI are also not intended to serve as a forum for free expression by the public,” the agency said in a memo to regional park directors.
But New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is among those who said he is “outraged” by the removal of the flag, saying the monument is a symbol of the gay rights struggle in the city.
The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village was widely considered the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement. In 1969, a police raid at the gay bar sparked protests and skirmishes between rioters and police. Then-President Barack Obama designated the monument in 2016 during his second term.
“New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history,” Mamdani posted on social media. “Our city has a duty not just to honor this legacy, but to live up to it.”
Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul also protested the move and vowed that she won’t let the Trump administration “rollback the rights we fought so hard for.”
“First the Trump administration worked to erase transgender history from the Stonewall Monument and now they have secretly removed the pride flag — a shameful attempt to erase our LGBTQ history,” Hochul said in a statement.
The removal of the flag is the latest flare up in a culture wars fight over the Trump administration’s efforts to purge federal institutions and landmarks of materials that conflict with the president’s political agenda. Last year, the park service removed references to transgender and queer people on its web page for the Stonewall monument, drawing outrage from LGBTQ groups.
Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal and other Democratic officials are expected to gather with LGBTQ activists at the monument on Thursday where they are vowing to “re-raise” the rainbow flag.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, called the flag’s removal “deeply outrageous” and vowed that it will be returned to the monument.
“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 said. “New Yorkers will see to it.”
