The Trump administration has announced it will keep flying a rainbow Pride flag at Stonewall National Monument in New York City, according to Associated Press. The announcement was made as the administration agrees to settle a lawsuit filed by LGBTQ+ and historic preservation groups seeking to block the flag’s removal, which occurred in February.
The flag’s removal came just months after the National Park Service removed the "T," as well as the "Q," from LGBTQ in the first sentence on the monument's webpage. The Park Service also erased "transgender" from most of the site, though there remained mention of the "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center." More than 100 queer and transgender stories were also removed from various NPS webpages.
The government revealed the decision to restore the flag in court papers, though a judge must still approve the deal.
The Interior Department and National Park Service “have confirmed their intention to maintain a Pride flag at Stonewall,” lawyers for the government and the groups wrote in a joint court filing, according to Associated Press. It won’t be removed, except for “maintenance or other practical purposes,” the filing said.
Under the agreement, the Park Service will hang three flags on the Stonewall monument flagpole in Manhattan within one week. The Pride flag will fly between the U.S. flag and the Park Service flag, and each flag will measure three feet by five feet.
“We fought the Trump administration and won,” Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Democrat who helped organize a protest after the government-authorized banner was removed, told Associated Press.
“We as an LGBTQ community celebrate the legal climb-down by the gutless Trump Administration on their contemptuous attempt to erase queer people from American history at Stonewall, the birthplace of the worldwide LGBTQ human rights movement,” said Hoylman-Sigal.
The Pride flag was formally installed at Stonewall in 2022, during the Biden administration, following a campaign by activists who wanted the flag to be flown daily inside the park service-run site.
When the flag was removed in February, the Park Service explained they were complying with federal guidance on flag displays. A January 21 memo largely restricts the agency to displaying the U.S., Department of the Interior and POW/MIA flags, with exemptions that include providing “historical context.”
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