The Trump administration has stopped flying a rainbow flag at the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan, a change the National Park Service described as a compliance action tied to flag policy. The monument, a National Park Service-run site in Greenwich Village across the street from the Stonewall Inn, centers on the location’s historic role in the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.
The multicolored flag, one of the most recognizable symbols of LGBTQ+ pride, was quietly removed in recent days from a flagpole at the federal site, the Associated Press reported. Activists said they view the move as a symbolic attack on the monument’s purpose and the community it commemorates. They also said some federal actions around the Stonewall site have already drawn scrutiny.
The National Park Service said it was following recent guidance that clarifies longstanding flag rules and applies them consistently across the agency. The AP reported that a Jan. 21 park service memo largely limits the agency to flying flags of the United States, the Department of the Interior and the POW/MIA flag.
Ann Northrop, an LGBTQ+ activist and co-host of the weekly cable news program “GAY USA,” said the explanation did not satisfy her. “It’s just a disgusting slap in the face,” she said by phone Tuesday as advocates and City Council members planned rallies, according to the Associated Press report. Northrop co-hosts “GAY USA” and spoke at a flag-related ceremony at the monument in 2017, activists said.
Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal also criticized the removal, calling it both petty and harmful to the meaning of the site. In remarks carried by the AP, Hoylman-Sigal said, “On one level, removing a flag seems extremely, I guess, pedestrian. But the symbolism of doing it here at Stonewall is what is so profoundly disappointing and frightening,” adding that the decision drew particular concern because of the monument’s symbolic importance.
Other details reported by the AP show that the rainbow flag did not disappear entirely from the immediate area. A rainbow flag still appears on a city-owned pole just outside the park, and smaller flags wave along the monument’s fence. Activists said they had pushed for the rainbow banner to fly on federal property every day and described its federal debut in 2019 as a significant recognition.
The flag removal is also part of a broader dispute activists say has developed between LGBTQ+ advocates and President Donald Trump’s administrations over how the Stonewall monument is treated. The AP reported that Democrats created the Stonewall National Monument in 2016, and that LGBTQ+ activists were irritated during Trump’s first administration when the park service kept a bureaucratic distance from the raising of the rainbow flag on the city’s pole.
The AP reported that the Trump administration later reviewed materials tied to the site and, soon after Trump returned to office last year, removed verbal references to transgender people from the park service website for the Stonewall monument. Activists characterized those changes as part of a larger effort to remove or alter descriptions at national parks and other government-run cultural institutions that the administration views as inappropriate, the AP reported.
In its statement responding to questions, the National Park Service said the Stonewall National Monument continues to preserve and interpret the site’s historic significance through exhibits and programs. The park service did not answer specific questions Tuesday raised by the AP, including whether any flags were removed from other parks.
The reported flag policy change comes as advocates planned rallies and city and state officials discussed next steps, while the park service framed its actions as routine enforcement of guidance. For LGBTQ+ activists, the federal location’s symbolic status appears to be the central issue, even as federal officials said the underlying rationale was administrative policy rather than a targeted message.