A Complicated Birthday

In June, New York City’s Stonewall National Monument, the only site in the park system focused on LGBTQ history, will celebrate its 10th anniversary. If all goes according to plan, a sea of 250 rainbow flags will be erected on the fence that surrounds Christopher Park, a tiny parcel at the heart of the monument. A series of 27 posters that tell the story of the LGBTQ liberation movement will go up in windows of neighborhood shops. Those taking part in the city’s Pride parade will go right past the monument and see a rainbow flag flying across the street from the famous bar where patrons fought back against a police raid in 1969, an uprising that changed the course of LGBTQ history.

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Millions of people have visited the monument in its short life, and many walked away with “a deeper sense of our shared humanity,” as Timothy Leonard, NPCA’s former Northeast program manager, put it. That’s good reason to celebrate, yet this year’s milestone is marked by an undercurrent of concern and anger because of recent events that have unfolded at the site.

After President Donald Trump issued an executive order related to gender identity in January 2025, all the trans flags at the park were taken down, and the words “transgender” and “queer” — along with the T and the Q in LGBTQ — were removed from the monument’s website. Park rangers were instructed to avoid telling visitors about the role transgender activists played in the Stonewall uprising, Leonard said.

“The trans and the queer communities are central to the LGBTQ equality movement,” Leonard said. “This was not the full story. It wasn’t an inclusive history, and it became a problem, because when people visit park sites, that’s what they’re expecting.” (More than 70 House Democrats signed a letter to the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior calling for the reinstatement of content related to the transgender community, but nothing has changed yet.)

A year later, residents and park supporters were furious when the Interior Department issued a memorandum about what flags were allowed to fly at park sites and, as a result, Stonewall’s pride flag was removed in the middle of the night. “It was a true affront to the community,” said Andre Becker, of the Christopher Park Alliance, which maintains the park gardens. 

[SUMMER 2026] A Complicated Birthday Flag

The community was outraged when the original rainbow flag was removed from
Stonewall National Monument. A lawsuit (followed by a settlement) led to the reinstatement of a rainbow flag — in a different position on the flagpole.

COURTESY OF ANDRE BECKER

At one of several rallies, a rainbow flag was raised in the park in defiance of the guidance, and a coalition of groups sued for the right to display the flag. In April, that lawsuit ended in a settlement with the federal government, and an official rainbow flag now flies alongside a Park Service flag and a U.S. flag.

Not everyone is satisfied with the new arrangement, with the U.S. flag at the top, but “it’s better than it was,” Becker said. Now “what still needs to be tackled,” he said, “is the erasure of the trans community … and the rewriting of American history.” 

His group is behind the 10th-anniversary posters. When they came up with the idea, they didn’t know what, if anything, the Park Service would do to celebrate the occasion, and “we just want the story to get out there,” he said. He wonders if outside groups will start offering their own free, uncensored tours of the monument if the erasure trend continues.

Leonard said these recent struggles only underscore how needed the site is. “There’s never been a more important time to lift up the story of Stonewall,” he said, “and to take inspiration from it.”