U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has removed a large rainbow Pride flag that flew over the Stonewall National Monument, which marks the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement in New York City.
The National Park Service, the federal agency overseeing U.S. national monuments, said that it managed the flagpole at the monument and that the flag had been removed to ensure a “longstanding policy” was applied consistently across its sites.
But some elected officials in New York said the flag’s removal from the Greenwich Village monument in downtown Manhattan was part of efforts by Trump, a Republican, to limit the rights of gay and transgender people.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat, said he was outraged and called it an “act of erasure.” Some officials have said they intend to raise another Pride flag on the now bare flagpole before the week is out.
The Park Service referred to guidance issued in 2023 that government-managed flagpoles are not “a forum for free expression by the public,” and that flags besides the U.S. flag may be flown that are “an expression of the Federal Government’s official sentiments.” The policy allows flags that provide historical context or are part of a “living history” program.
The flag was removed either Sunday night or early Monday morning, Gay City News reported on Monday.
Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal said the removal was “a deliberate attack on the LGBTQ community.”
The National Park Service did not respond to questions about what it would do if New Yorkers raised another rainbow flag over the monument, as Hoylman-Sigal and others have said they intend to do on Thursday.
“We think that the worst outcome would be arrest, but that’s in the spirit of Stonewall itself,” Hoylman-Sigal said. “The movement was founded on rebellion against authorities.”
