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BY SCOTT STIFFLER | Corrective measures from activists, citizen stakeholders, and electeds—some proposed, others already accomplished or in play—rebuke the Trump Administration’s latest effort to erase queer visibility from a public space created to amplify it.
Compelled by Trump-orchestrated policy shifts contained in this January 21, 2026, NPS Memorandum, National Park Service (NPS) personnel removed a Rainbow Pride flag (with the original, 8-stripe design) from Stonewall National Monument grounds on February 9, 2026.
Several variations of the colorful indicator of identity had flown since 2017, just over a year after President Obama established the park and parts of the surrounding areas as “Stonewall National Monument.” The National Historic Landmark’s name refers to the Stonewall Uprising, a days-long series of confrontations in the streets of Greenwich Village following June 29, 1969’s police raid of The Stonewall Inn (53 Christopher St.).
Three days after its removal, February 12’s “Re-raise the PRIDE Flag” action saw the enduring symbol restored to its Christopher Park flag pole. As of this writing, its raised presence has continued, unabated. But at “Re-raise,” that outcome was hardly a given. In fact, elected officials who organized the event and others in attendance were quick to declare their open-ended commitment to Pride flag restoration.
PLAYING THE LONG GAME | Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal told our reporter, “We’ll just raise it again,” with NYS Senator Erik Bottcher asserting, “We’re not going to stop.” Kelley Robinson, President of the Human Rights Campaign, said she expects LGBTQ+ advocates to “show up again and again and again to make it clear that we’re not going to stand for it.”
And at a “Hands Off Our History” rally held on the morning of February 12, NYS Assemblymember Tony Simone vowed, “For every flag you take down, ten more will go up.” (That prediction has come to pass, with individuals placing flags of all stripes–Rainbow, Trans, and Pride–on or near Christopher Park’s fence.)
FOLD THE FLAG INTO FEDERAL PROTECTION? | During a February 15 announcement taking place in visual range of the restored flag, Senator Charles Schumer previewed legislation that would see Congress codify the Pride flag in federal law. “This bill,” says Schumer, “bypasses political interference, and ensures no administration can ever lay a finger on it again. The Pride flag belongs at Stonewall and we will work to make that protection permanent.”
GIVE THE TAKEBACK PLAN A CHANCE? | Rather than posit a solution exclusive to the matter of flag removal, the notion of returning ownership of Christopher Park to the City of New York is gaining some traction.
Speaking at the February 12 “Re-raise” event, MBP Hoylman-Sigal put that scenario into context, noting, “We ceded the land to the federal government, and that was intentional because we thought that the feds were the best caretaker.”
The MBP called what happened on February 9 “a sad ending to what was an attempt by the Obama administration to make certain that pride and Stonewall were preserved. But with Trump in the White House, all bets are off.”
FLAG REMOVAL NOT THE FIRST LGBTQ+ ACT OF ERASURE AT STONEWALL NATIONAL MONUMENT | Longtime journalist and activist Andy Humm told LGBTQCommunityNews that alongside the righteous indignation elicited from Pride flag removal, one should keep in mind that, “The federal government has also removed trans people from the telling of the [Stonewall] story, which is another reason that it should not be under federal control. The Parks Service is working for a fascist government.”
Humm’s words recall summer 2025’s removal of references to transgender people from the NPS’s website–another act of erasure compelled by Trump-orchestrated policy change (in this case, designating “male” and “female” as the only federally recognized genders).
The result is a cringe-inducing example of what happens when history is freed from the surly bond of facts. “Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person was illegal,” reads the NPS text, “but the events at the Stonewall Inn sparked fresh momentum for the LGB civil rights movement.” (Despite these efforts, the “T” for trans and the “Q” for queer have retained their rightful, robust presence at the tail end of “LGB.”)
IS “WE’LL GET WORKING ON THAT” BEING WORKED ON? | In an online report about Schumer’s February 15 legislation announcement, NYC’s biweekly newspaper, Gay City News (GCN), noted that Humm asked Schumer about “bringing the Stonewall National Monument back under city control to prevent federal interference in the future.”
The response, noted GCN: “Andy Humm always comes up with good ideas,” Schumer said. “We’ll get working on that.”
But if there’s been forward momentum on what reads as a vow to give City control some credence, Schumer’s press office isn’t courting publicity for the effort. In over a half-dozen emails, LGBTQCommunityNews repeatedly asked if there’s a path forward to “get working on that.” Each response provided no answer, instead offering new (even exclusive!) information extolling the pending legislation.
In any event, it should be noted that Sen. Schumer introduced S.3911 on February 25, 2026 (“A bill to designate the Pride flag as an authorized flag eligible for display at units of the National Park System, to express the sense of the Senate that the Pride flag should be on display at the Stonewall National Monument in the State of New York, and for other purposes.”)
A PRECEDENT FOR CITY OWNERSHIP | Making the argument for restoration of ownership, with history on his side, is Michael Petrelis–the longtime member of Act Up whom many credit as the driving force that sparked and then solidified the quest to place a Pride flag at Stonewall National Monument. Of the part he played, Petrelis simply said, “I would describe myself as the ‘instigator.’ It was June of 2017. I wanted a rainbow flag flying on the nautical flagpole that’s on the sidewalk, on the eastern tip.”
The NPS was amenable, but not in time for Pride as Petrelis had hoped–so he and other advocates made the pivot to coincide with National Coming Out Day–October 11. Two days before, recalled Petrelis, “The first [media] story appeared that the Rainbow flag for the first time ever was going to fly on federal property, permanently… And literally overnight, the federal government, [the Trump Administration] said, ‘Oh no, we will now give control of that flagpole [outside of the park] back to New York City. So it’s a precedent for today–and I am saying that right now, the entire park inside the wrought iron fence should be turned back to New York City.”
Petrelis also has a plan for documenting any future flag removal. It’s “trust but verify” with a modern tech twist: This GoFundMe campaign launched by Petrelis means to “raise funds to underwrite five (5) cams operating 24/7 and live-streaming all activities there [at the park].” As of this article’s publication, $1,271 of the $2.6K goal has been raisded.
ADVOCATING IN THE PRESENT FOR ACTION IN THE NEAR FUTURE | The time for effective and varied response is now, says Gays Against Guns president and Queer Liberation March co-founder Jay W. Walker. It was Walker (a contributing reporter to this website) who organized February 10’s “Hands Off” Community Gathering in response to the flag’s removal–and on February 12, Walker was among those responsible for running a Pride flag back up the pole from which it had long flown.
Said Walker of legislation and the NYC “takeback” scenario, “I think that those are important things to do, that we should absolutely do. But they will take time.” In the here and now, Walker posits “ways to respond immediately rather than waiting for the legal [and legislative] process to work itself out–things that we [the community] can do, that the City could do.”
With Federal authority contained within the 0.19-acre park’s wrap-around wrought iron fencing, Walker’s February 24 Facebook and Instagram post read, in part, “I propose that three 20’ tall flagpoles be installed close to the curbline of the stretch of West 4th Street sidewalk in front of the main gate of the Stonewall National Monument to permanently display a Rainbow flag, a Trans flag, and a Progress flag. Mayor Mamdani and New York City Council, this can be done immediately on your authority.”
Walker further notes there are “other ways that the City could utilize the space surrounding the park, to reinforce history,” including “signs that read ‘Trans People were here, taking part [in the Stonewall Uprising].’ ”
Said Steven Love Menendez, a volunteer citizen caretaker who cultivated a mutual respect dynamic with the Monument’s NPS personnel: “Other cities like Montreal and Quebec, their gay neighborhoods are very visible. I feel like the West Village lacks some of that.” As a corrective, he is currently working with a community group on “some kind of installation outside the park and in the neighborhood [other Monument-designated streets], to create hope, to create Pride.”
Asked for his take on the Pride flag’s swift restoration, Menendez drew a breath and said, in a calm and centered tone, “For me, I’m the kind of person who, when something intense happens, I like to step back and think about it. Even the action of putting the flag back on the pole; it could have been equally interesting to not have the flag back–for a moment.”
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