What has stood as a beacon for the LGBTQ community will remain at the Stonewall National Monument.
The Pride flag, which was removed from the site Feb. 9 under a federal government directive, has been restored — with additional Pride flags being allowed to fly — after the government and plaintiffs in a lawsuit reached an agreement. The primary terms of the agreement, according to the stipulation of voluntary dismissal filed April 13 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, say that:
- The suit is voluntarily dismissed with prejudice with no costs to any party.
- Within seven days of the stipulation’s filing, the National Park Service, which oversees the site, will hang “three equally sized, three feet by five feet flags on the flagpole at Stonewall. NPS will have the American flag at the top of the flagpole in accordance with current guidance, and below the American flag, on either side, NPS will hang the rainbow Pride and NPS flags.”
- The court will retain jurisdiction for the purpose of enforcing the stipulation.
The plaintiffs — the Gilbert Baker Foundation and its president, Charles Beal; Village Preservation; and EQNY Fund, Inc., which does business as Equality New York — filed their suit Feb. 17 in district court against the U.S. Department of the Interior and Secretary Doug Burgum, the NPS and acting Director Jessica Bowron and Superintendent of Manhattan Sites Amy Sebring.
The NPS took down the flag to comply with a Jan. 21 memo to regional directors and superintendents from the DOI, which oversees the NPS. The memo said that “…only the U.S. flag, flags of the DOI, and the POW/MIA flag will be flown by the NPS in public spaces where the NPS is responsible for the upkeep, maintenance, and operation of the flag and flagpole,” with limited exceptions.
Backlash as a result of the removal came swiftly from city, state and national public officials and LGBTQ activists, community members and allies. Many regarded the removal as an attempt to erase LGBTQ people from the nation’s history and even to invalidate their very existence.
Village Preservation Executive Director Andrew Berman told Out in Jersey in a statement April 14: “Trying to erase or suppress LGBTQ+ history is never acceptable, but especially not at the Stonewall National Monument. We fought for many years to ensure Stonewall was landmarked and recognized by the federal government for its extraordinary importance to LGBTQ+ history and the civil rights movement. We could not sit idly by and allow the symbol of this community and its struggle for equal rights to be erased here of all places. We’re elated to have succeeded and forced the federal government to reverse their actions and re-raise the flag.”
The other parties in the case did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a email on April 13: “BREAKING: The (Trump) administration was forced to settle and heed our demands that the pride flag at Stonewall National Monument will always fly freely and proudly.
“This would not have been possible without steadfast activism and pressure from local community groups and elected officials such as the Gilbert Baker Foundation, Equality New York, HRC, Housing Works, Stonewall Dems, Rep. Dan Goldman, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, State Senator Erik Bottcher, Assembly Member Tony Simone, Allen Roskoff, and many more.
“I will always stand with our LGBTQ+ community against these monstrous attacks on the history of the struggle for equality and on freedom.”
The Stonewall National Monument is across from the Stonewall Inn, which is widely regarded to be the birthplace of the modern-day LGBTQ civil rights movement in the United States. A police raid on the bar in June 1969 was met with resistance from the queer community, who rose up and demanded to be treated with dignity and respect.
