The rainbow pride flag at the Stonewall National Monument in Greenwich Village was removed from its flagpole in early February without warning. The mainstream news did not report on the disappearance until Gay City News inquired about the missing flag to the National Park Service.
The removal of the flag is just another attempt by the Trump Administration to erase LGBTQ+ voices.
The NPS cited the flag’s removal as part of the new United States Department of the Interior guidelines for which flags may be flown on federal land. Under the policy, only the U.S. flag may be flown unless the site has special circumstances.
Stonewall is the first national monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ history in the U.S. It was designated by former President Barack Obama in 2016. The monument serves as an educational and historical site for the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, which is widely recognized as a turning point for the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.
To not allow the flag to be flown shows the administration’s blatant disregard for rights that people fought hard to obtain and are still trying to protect.
This is not the first time the monument has fallen victim to the administration’s policies of erasure. Shortly after Trump started his second term in 2025, the NPS removed both the “T” and “Q” from the LGBTQ+ acronym — representing transgender and queer, respectively — from the official website. It also replaced the progressive pride flag, which contains stripes specifically representing the transgender community, to the traditional rainbow pride flag.
The Stonewall Inn, where the riots had originally erupted, does not have to follow the flag regulations as it is independently owned.
Even though the flag returned to the flagpole by the end of that same month due to the protests that followed its removal, it is still not enough.
The lack of regard for why the area was turned into a national monument shows that the Trump administration will not stop its drive for erasure. The progressive pride flag should be reinstated at the site, as the administration cannot simply declare that gender identity is irrelevant.
The administration is both transphobic and homophobic, going against America’s values of freedom of expression, diversity and recognition of LGBTQ+ rights.
Queer people exist all around the world; the removal of a flag doesn’t change that. As the nation’s 250th anniversary approaches, the entire past, present and future must be recognized by the government, not erased.
