The Trump administration has agreed to restore a rainbow Pride flag to the Stonewall National Monument in New York City, reversing a decision made just months ago to remove the banner. The government revealed the U-turn on Monday in court papers filed as part of a settlement in a lawsuit brought by LGBTQ+ and historic preservation groups. A judge must still formally approve the agreement before it takes effect.
Under the settlement terms, the National Park Service — the federal agency that oversees the site — will within one week hang three flags on its flagpole at the monument: the U.S. flag on top, the Pride flag in the middle, and the park service flag below. Each will measure three feet by five feet. The Pride flag may only be taken down for "maintenance or other practical purposes," according to the joint court filing.
The Stonewall National Monument, established by President Barack Obama in 2016, centres on a small park in lower Manhattan, directly across the street from the Stonewall Inn — the gay bar where a police raid in June 1969 sparked days of protests that helped catalyse the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. It is the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ history. The Pride flag was formally installed there in 2022 during President Joe Biden's administration, following years of campaigning by activists, as a symbol of the government's commitment to recognising the diverse histories of all Americans.
In February, the park service removed the flag, citing a January 21st internal memo restricting federal flag displays largely to the U.S., Department of the Interior, and POW/MIA flags. LGBTQ+ activists viewed the removal as a deliberate attempt to diminish the site's significance, and local Democratic officials and advocates quickly organised to raise a replacement rainbow flag in protest. The reversal drew sharp but contrasting reactions: Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, one of the protest organisers and the first openly gay person elected to that office, declared that the LGBTQ+ community had "fought the Trump administration and won," while the Gilbert Baker Foundation — honouring the designer of the original Pride flag — called Stonewall "sacred ground" that deserved to have the flag flying permanently.
The episode is part of a broader pattern under the Trump administration, which has scrutinised national parks, museums, and monuments to remove or alter content it deems "divisive or partisan." References to transgender people have already been removed from the Stonewall monument's website and educational materials. While the flag's return marks a legal setback for the administration's approach to LGBTQ+ symbols at federal sites, advocates note that other changes to the monument's messaging remain in place.