Pride flag removed from iconic LGBTQ monument by Trump administration

The rainbow flag, which once flew over the gay nightclub that fueled America’s Pride movement, has been removed.

The Trump administration has taken down the Pride flag at Stonewall National Monument, in what many see as a symbolic swipe at the country’s first national monument in gay history.

The National Park Service-managed site, which centers on a park in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, is across the street from the Stonewall Inn, the gay bar where a riot against a police raid fueled the gay rights movement.

The park service said it complied with recent guidance that clarified its longstanding flag policy and applied it consistently.

But gay rights activist Ann Northrop said the removal was a “disgusting slap in the face” and vowed to protest and raise the flag again.

The National Park Service prohibits the flying of “non-agency flags and pennants,” with no exceptions for historic, military or tribal flags.

“It’s part of the Trump administration’s effort to reform the Park Service in a way consistent with its right-wing support, while excluding minority groups and LGBTQ people,” Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal said. told CNN.

‘We’re just going to try to fly it again. It can be removed. We may not even be able to do this anymore; There may be federal agents stopping us, but we’re definitely going to try in the spirit of Stonewall,” he added.

Last February, nearly all mentions of trans and queer people were removed from a website for Stonewall National Monument.

That’s what the NPS said Subway at the time it did so to comply with orders from US President Donald Trump that federal agencies recognize only two gendersmale and female.

The changes to the monument website followed an attempt by US President Donald Trump to put an end to initiatives that “promote or reflect gender ideology.”

Agency officials were tasked with “restoring biological truth to the federal government” by, among other things, removing all public media that promotes trans rights.

Why is Stonewall so important?

The Stonewall Riots took place on June 28, 1969, when American police attacked a gay nightclub – the Stonewall Inn in New York City – as had become a regular occurrence.

It was expected that gay bars would be raided, with police given the power to arrest people committing homosexual acts, or require people to comply with a ‘three-part law’.

This law allowed them to arrest people – usually drag queens and kings, trans women and trans men – who wore more than three items of clothing that were not assigned to the gender assigned at birth.

But this time, their behavior caused a reaction that sent shockwaves around the world.

With the raid being the final straw, the gay community rioted – and the events of the next three nights became known as the Stonewall Riots.

Black drag queen Marsha Johnson helped lead the uprising, which became a key moment in the fight for gay rights.

From there, the momentum behind the Pride movement flowed into the mainstream, commercialized entity it is today.

1972 saw Britain’s first Pride demonstration, attended by around 700 demonstrators, and the founding of Britain’s first gay newspaper, Gay News.

A first gay rights conference followed a year later, before the party that became the Lib Dems took the lead in supporting LGBT rights in 1975.

Contact our news team by emailing webnews@metro.co.uk.

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