The rainbow flag is no longer flying over the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement. The National Park Service has taken down the large pride flag at New York City's Stonewall National Monument, reports USA Today. The agency cited a new policy saying that only the US flag or other official flags can fly at NPS sites, "with limited exceptions," per the New York Times. Volunteers who help maintain the site in Greenwich Village noticed the flag's removal on Monday. Advocates, however, plan to attempt to raise another pride flag at the site.
Stonewall is the first historic site in the US related to the gay rights movement, with President Obama designating it a national monument in 2016. The status commemorates the 1969 uprising sparked by a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar. The site has since become a symbol of LGBTQ activism worldwide. The Trump administration previously drew criticism for stripping references to transgender people from the monument's website, part of a broader push it framed as affirming only two sexes and opposing what it calls "gender ideology."
Cathy Renna of the National LGBTQ Task Force called the latest move "another attempted act of erasure" at what she described as "sacred ground" for the community. "We will not be erased." Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who is gay, said he and others plan to try to raise another pride flag. "If we're barred from raising the flag, then it will be a protest ... in the spirit of 1969," he tells Axios.
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