The Trump administration is lifting the ban on flying the Pride flag at the Stonewall memorial
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The Trump administration said Monday it would resume flying the rainbow Pride flag on the federal flagpole at Stonewall National Monument in New York City, reversing course after removing the banner in February.
The government revealed the decision in court papers as it agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by LGBTQ+ and historic preservation groups that sought to block the removal. A judge still has to approve the deal.
The Department of the Interior and the National Park Service have “confirmed their intent to keep the Pride flag at Stonewall,” attorneys for the state and the groups wrote in a joint court filing.
The flag — one of many Pride banners flying at the 3.1-acre Stonewall monument — will not be removed, except for “maintenance or other practical purposes,” the filing said.
Under the agreement, within a week, the park service will hang three flags from the flagpole it maintains at the monument. The Pride flag will be placed below the US flag, in accordance with the US flag code, and above the park service flag. Each will measure nine meters by 1.5 meters.
‘We fought … and won’
The site also features a large Pride banner on a city-owned flagpole and smaller rainbow flags on the fence surrounding the monument. These stay the whole time.
“We fought the Trump administration and we won,” said Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Democrat who helped organize the raising of the pride flag at the monument after the state-sanctioned banner was removed.
“We as the LGBTQ community celebrate the delegitimization of the Trump administration with contempt for their despicable attempt to erase bullies from American history at Stonewall, the birthplace of the global LGBTQ human rights movement,” said Hoylman-Sigal, who is the first openly gay person to be elected to the job.
The Gilbert Baker Foundation, which honors the creator of the Pride flag who died in 2017, was among the organizations that sued to have it removed from the Stonewall monument.
“Stonewall is a sacred place in the fight for LGBTQ+ freedom, and this decision ensures that the Rainbow Flag will continue to fly there, where it belongs,” said organization president Charley Beal.
A bright point
The Pride flag had become the center of controversy over US President Donald Trump’s approach to Stonewall – the first national monument commemorating LGBTQ+ history – and various other historic buildings.
After a years-long campaign by activists who wanted a flag symbolizing LGBTQ+ pride to fly every day inside the park, the banner was officially installed in 2022 during the presidency of Joe Biden.
At the time, park service officials in New York called the exhibit a symbol of the government’s commitment to “telling the complex and diverse histories of all Americans.”
In February, the park service removed the flag, in what the agency described as compliance with state guidance on flag displays. Park service memo for Jan. 21 severely restricts the agency from displaying the US Department of the Interior and POW/MIA (prisoner of war and non-action) flags, with exemptions including providing “historical context.”
The park service emphasized that the monument “remains committed to preserving and explaining the history and significance of this site” through various exhibits and programs. But LGBTQ+ activists saw the removal of the flag as an affront intended to diminish the site’s focus on their rights and visibility.
Lawmakers and some New York Democratic elected officials quickly arrived with another rainbow flag to replace the one that had been removed.
Former US president Barack Obama created the Stonewall monument in 2016. The monument is in a small park across the street from the Stonewall Inn, a women’s bar where a 1969 police raid sparked a riot and helped fuel the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.
After Trump returned to office last year, he focused on establishing diversity, equality and inclusion and protecting transgender people. In one result of his policies, many references to transgender people were removed from memorial websites and materials.
The Trump administration has similarly put national parks, museums and landmarks under the microscope for messages, aimed at removing or changing things the government says are “divisive or biased” or “unfairly denigrate the American people.”
