The Trump administration has sparked anger and defiance after removing the Pride rainbow flag from the historic Stonewall Monument in New York City — a global queer landmark.
In 2016, President Barack Obama created America’s first LGBTQ+ national monument when he officially proclaimed New York City’s Stonewall Inn, a longstanding LGBTQ+ bar, a national monument.
The location has been described as the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement after a 1969 police raid on the Stonewall Inn bar sparked riots, inspiring the first Pride marches. In addition to the bar, the monument includes a small adjacent park known as Christopher Park, as well as the surrounding streets and pavements.
Now, in what has been called a desecration and an attempt to erase queer history, the federal National Park Service has removed the primary rainbow flag flown in the park area of the monument.
The move follows a United States Department of the Interior directive issued in January 2026 limiting the types of flags that may be displayed at National Park sites, although exemptions are permitted.
New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani said he was “outraged” by the removal of the flag. “New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history,” he asserted.
“Our city has a duty not just to honour 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 neighbours — without exception.”
The Human Rights Campaign slammed the Trump administration for its “obsession” with the LGBTQ+ community, stating: “For over a year, they’ve been on a witch hunt, targeting rainbow crosswalks, pride flags, Black Lives Matter murals, and throwing a tantrum about a Super Bowl performance they couldn’t control. But they will fail. To our community: Fly your flag higher than ever.”
Local city officials have vowed to defy the White House and re-raise the flag at the monument, with plans for a ceremony scheduled for Thursday.
“I think it’s important that we speak out and stand up for the community, frankly, just as our forebearers, who exhibited much more courage back in 1969,” Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal told Politico.
“This is not a moment for our community to stand by idly as attempts to undermine our history are put forward by Trump and the federal administration.”
Ugandan LGBT advocate Frank Mugisha condemned the move as an affront to queer people worldwide.
“Stonewall belongs to the world. When symbols of our freedom are taken down in the United States, LGBTQ people everywhere hear the message. Taking down flags won’t erase our history or our lives. Visibility is not a gift from power — it’s something we claim and defend,” he said on X.
In February 2025, America’s National Park Service also came under fire for erasing references to transgender and queer people from its website page for the Stonewall Monument.
