Pride Flag Removed At Stonewall Becomes Symbol Of Resistance Against Trump Policies

NEW YORK, NY — Chloe Elentari stood beneath the bare flagpole at the Stonewall National Monument on Thursday morning, waving a large Pride flag that could be seen in the back of the crowd of about 75 people at a rally in Greenwich Village.

“This is our park,” Elentari, a transgender woman from the East Village, said. “This is not Donald Trump’s playground.”

That evening, local leaders and advocates gathered at the Stonewall National Monument to raise the rainbow Pride flag, which federal officials had removed earlier in the week under Trump administration guidance limiting flags at National Park Service sites to U.S. flags or those authorized by Congress.

“This liberation moment, this movement, was started by trans people, trans people of color,” Elentari said.

City Council member Chi Ossé, co-chair of the City Council’s LGBTQ caucus, said public officials shouldn’t have waited for the federal government.

The Stonewall National Monument, the site of the 1969 uprising that ignited the modern LGBTQ rights movement, is federally managed.

“The most Stonewall thing that we could possibly do is put that flag up ourselves instead of waiting for the president,” Ossé said.

Ossé called the federal directive “a distraction.” He said the federal focus on LGBTQ issues was a diversion from broader misconduct in the administration and an attempt to undermine the rights of queer people.

“It is our responsibility to protect our history, to protect our people,” Ossé said. “This is not policy. This is personal.”

Council Member Crystal Hudson, a former co-chair of the LGBTQ caucus, said the Pride flag’s restoration builds on a history of resistance and resilience of historical social movements, noting that Black history and queer history are intertwined.

“We’re here, we’re queer, and we’re not going anywhere,” Hudson said.

Elentari said she knows some think “it’s just a flag,” but to her and the LGBTQ+ community, it represents a layer of social liberation.

“It’s a symbol of our rights, it’s a symbol of our existence,” Elentari said. “We will not be erased... But, yeah, it’s the darkest [time] right now.”