Trump Administration Removal of Pride Flag at Stonewall Monument Sparks Collective Change
- Caresse Liang
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
BY: CO-NEWS EDITOR / CARESSE LIANG
On Feb. 9, the Trump Administration removed a rainbow Pride flag from the iconic Stonewall National Monument in Greenwich Village, following a federal order on Jan. 21.
A memo from the U.S. Department of the Interior issued a removal of the pride flag, stating that “only US flags, agency flags, and the POW/MIA flag will be flown by the NPS in public spaces.” However, it also states that if “provided historical context,” another flag can be flown as well.
Speaker Julie Menin, accompanied by the co-chairs of the LGBTQIA+ Caucus, Chi Ossé and Justin Sanchez, wrote a letter asking for the flag to be reinstated.
“Stonewall is a sacred ground in the history of civil rights in our country.” She writes, endorsing the historical significance of the Pride flag to Stonewall. “The Pride flag has long flown as a symbol of that struggle and of the resilience of a community that continues to fight for its basic rights.”
With the administration’s decision to take it down, it sparked significant backlash about the intentions behind Trump’s federal order. This rash judgment has brought the LGBTQIA+ community a sense of stress, as it is a display of the queer erasure that is currently occurring within the United States.
“They cannot erase our history,” the Manhattan borough president, Brad Hoylman-Sigal, wrote in a social media post. “Our Pride flag will be raised again.”
The recent Pride flag, called the Progress flag, is decorated with colors ranging from red to black to represent the LGBTQIA+ community. It commemorates the 1969 Stonewall riots at Stonewall Inn and recognizes the area as a landmark where hundreds of LGBTQ+ civilians protested against a non-alerted and violent police raid.
Now referred to as the center of the gay rights movement, Stonewall Inn represents the queer community within the roots of Greenwich Village—and gives them a place to be remembered against the silence and oppression.
To counteract the removal of the Pride flag, thousands of demonstrators gathered at the Stonewall National Park on Feb. 12 to raise a new one.
However, the day before the re-raising, the National Park Service replaced the original flag with an American flag.
With the combination of the new Pride flag from the activists and the American flag, it caught them in a bind; one flagpole was shorter than the other, making the Pride flag fly lower than the American flag.
“So it ended up being with the American flag overshadowing our flag, and our community was incensed," said Jay Walker, an activist and cofounder of the Queer Liberation March and president of Gays Against Guns.
The gathering was originally held on Feb. 12, but it spanned throughout that week. For a solution, the crowd came together again to zip-tie two of the flags together on the same flagpole, letting them fly in unison.
This newer flag represents both the U.S. flag and the original Pride flag, symbolizing the importance of how Queer history blends into American history.
Even then, the exclusion of the Progress flag is another present issue, as it doesn’t represent the marginalized groups within the LGBTQIA+ community, such as the Transgender community.
“Like, where are the trans colours? Trans people are dying, Black trans women and Brown women are the reason that our rights exist in the first [place]. What are we doing here?” Said Trans playwright Mika Kauffman, who criticized the choice of putting up the older Pride flag.
As this situation stirs, the hope remains that the protests don’t go silent and that the Progress flag will be up again, flying across the sky forever.
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