Pride flag removed from Stonewall National Monument after Trump admin directive
Local politicians plan to raise the flag again on Thursday.
The National Park Service quietly removed a large Pride flag from outside the Stonewall National Monument in New York City after a recent directive from the administration of President Donald Trump.
Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who is gay and a vocal supporter of LGBTQ rights, said in a post to social media that local officials had confirmed the flag was removed as a result of a federal order last month.
“They cannot erase our history," he said. "Our Pride flag will be raised again. Stay tuned.”
In another post, Hoylman-Sigal said he planned to raise the flag again with U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman and state lawmakers on Thursday.
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Meanwhile, the monument's website, managed by the National Park Service, still features information about the large flag that was displayed in the plaza outside the Stonewall.
"Visitors to Christopher Park will find the interpretive flag display featuring the Pride flag," the website reads.
The Stonewall Inn is a historic gay bar in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, that birthed the modern LGBTQ rights movement after a violent police raid on June 28, 1969.
Police had frequently raided gay bars at the time. But, instead of dispersing, the community resisted—sparking days of protests along Christopher Street and clashes with law enforcement. The next year, the LGBTQ community and its supporters organized the first Pride marches, which continue each year in June.
The bar and the area around it were designated Stonewall National Monument on June 24, 2016, by President Barack Obama. It became the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights history.
The move comes after the Trump administration scrubbed references to transgender people from the monument’s website.
Jessica Bowron, the acting director of the NPS, had penned a memo to regional directors and superintendents with guidance on the display and flying of non-agency flags and pennants within the National Park System, the document referenced by Hoylman-Sigal.
“The purpose of this memorandum is to provide guidance to superintendents and site managers on policies and procedures for the display and flying of non-agency flags and pennants,” Bowron wrote.
She directed park leaders to adhere strictly to federal law and Department of the Interior policy. She defined non-agency flags and pennants as those that are not the national flag of the United States or flags of the U.S. Interior Department.
The federal statutes cited by Bowron in the memo govern how the U.S. flag must be displayed on federal property and specifically authorize the POW/MIA flag.
The U.S. Flag Code, which is largely advisory, establishes protocols for the handling and display of the American flag. Separate statutes explicitly authorize the display of the POW/MIA flag at certain federal buildings and on designated days and regulations issued by the General Services Administration also govern flag displays on federal property.
But none of the cited statutes explicitly bar the flying of other commemorative or organizational flags.
Still, a spokesman for the NPS said in a statement to the New York Daily News that the removal complied with existing agency policy.
“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.”
The NPS added that the Stonewall National Monument “continues to preserve and interpret the site’s historic significance through exhibits and programs.”
“I am outraged by the removal of the Rainbow Pride Flag from Stonewall National Monument. New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history,” New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement.
“Our city has a duty not just to honor this legacy, but to live up to it. I will always fight for a New York City that invests in our LGBTQ+ community, defends their dignity, and protects every one of our neighbors—without exception.”
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is facing a federal lawsuit filed by the city of Philadelphia over the removal of a slavery exhibit in Independence National Historic Park.
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