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The Trump administration has agreed to restore a Pride flag that was previously removed from Stonewall National Monument in New York City, following a lawsuit from several nonprofit groups alleging it had been improperly removed earlier this year.
In February, the National Park Service (NPS) took the Pride flag down, following a directive from the Interior Department stipulating that “only the U.S. flag and other congressionally or departmentally authorized flags” be flown at agency-managed locations. Several organizations filed a joint lawsuit soon after, seeking to have the flag restored at its location, just outside the Stonewall Inn, widely considered to be the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ liberation movement.
The lawsuit alleged that the removal of the flag was the latest in “a long line of efforts by the Trump administration” to target LGBTQ people, their communities, and their histories. It also noted that other flags — including those with racist overtones, like the Confederate battle flag — were allowed at other national parks.
The suit also noted that national park gift shops across the country had been ordered to remove LGBTQ merchandise, whereas Confederate products have not been banned.
“The NPS does not prohibit sales of Confederate flag merchandise at gift shops located on its premises; instead, it has merely requested that its vendors voluntarily withdraw such items from the shops,” the lawsuit pointed out. “In contrast, the NPS has ordered the removal of all products recognizing the identities of LGBTQ+ people from its gift shops.”
The suit also claimed the administration targeted signage detailing the history of Stonewall, limiting wording it deemed to be too “woke.”
On Monday, it was announced that an agreement between NPS and the litigants had been reached, restoring the Pride flag at the national park.
Per the agreement, which was filed at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Trump administration has agreed not to remove the flag from Stonewall National Monument except for maintenance-related reasons, and to reinstall the removed flag within a week’s time. NPS will hang “three equally sized, three feet by five feet flags on the flagpole at Stonewall,” including the U.S. flag, Pride flag, and NPS flag.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the restoration of the Pride flag at Stonewall “a reminder that New Yorkers won’t let our history be rewritten.”
“Our administration will keep working to ensure LGBTQ+ New Yorkers can live safely and with dignity in our city,” Mamdani added in his statement.
Efforts to restore the full history of Stonewall National Monument are not yet over, as the administration has also removed language from the monument commemorating queer and transgender people’s roles in the LGBTQ liberation movement. Still, advocates described the agreement as a win for the community.
“The government tried to erase an important symbol of the LGBTQ+ community, and the community said ‘no,'” said Amanda Babine, executive director of Equality New York. The ruling “proves that when we stand together and fight back, we win.”
“This is a complete victory for our clients and for the LGBTQ+ community,” said Alexander Kristofcak of the Washington Litigation Group, one of the legal organizations involved in the lawsuit. “The government has acknowledged what we argued from day one: the Pride flag belongs at Stonewall.”
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