NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration said Monday it will reinstate the rainbow Pride flag on the Confederate flagpole at Stonewall National Monument in New York City, reversing two months after removing the banner from the first national monument to commemorate LGBTQ+ history.
The government disclosed the decision in court documents as it agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by advocacy and historic preservation groups seeking the February 9 removal. A judge approved the settlement.
The Interior Department and the National Park Service have “confirmed their intent to maintain the Pride flag at Stonewall,” attorneys for the government and the group wrote in a joint court filing.
The flag — one of several Pride banners in the 7.7-acre (3.1-hectare) park — will not be removed, except for “maintenance or other practical purposes,” the filing said.
According to the agreement, the Park Service will hang three flags on the flagpole of the monument within a week. The pride flag will be placed below the American flag, in accordance with the American Flag Code, and above the Park Service flag. Each will measure 3 feet by 5 feet (0.9 meters by 1.5 meters).
The site also displays a large Pride flag on a city-controlled flagpole and a smaller flag on the fence surrounding the memorial, which is across the street from the Stonewall Inn, the gay bar where a 1969 police raid sparked an uprising and helped spur the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. Those flags were not removed.
“We fought the Trump administration and won,” Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoilman-Siegel wrote in X. Democrats helped organize Pride flag raising after the government-mandated banner was removed.
“We as the LGBTQ community celebrate the legal climbdown by the blameless Trump administration on Stonewall in their outrageous attempt to erase queer people from American history,” wrote Hoilman-Siegel, the first openly gay person elected to her job.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat, called the Trump administration’s reversal “a victory for the LGBTQ+ community and our entire city” and a “reminder that New Yorkers must not let our history be rewritten.”
The Gilbert Baker Foundation, which honors the Pride flag maker who died in 2017, was among the organizations that filed a lawsuit against the removal.
“Stonewall is sacred ground in the fight for LGBTQ+ liberation, and this resolution helps ensure the rainbow flag continues to fly where it belongs,” said Charlie Beal, president of the foundation.
The Pride flag became a flashpoint for debate over Republican President Donald Trump’s approach to Stonewall and various other historic properties.
After a year-long campaign by activists who wanted the LGBTQ+ pride flag to be flown daily inside the park service-run site, the banner was officially installed in 2022 during Democrat Joe Biden’s term.
At the time, Park Service officials called it a sign of the government’s commitment to “telling the complex and diverse history of all Americans.”
When it removed the flag in February, the Park Service said it was following federal guidance on flag displays. The Jan. 21 memo largely banned the display of U.S., Department of the Interior and POW/MIA flags, with the exception of providing the agency with “historical context.”
The Park Service emphasized that the monument is “committed to preserving and interpreting the history and significance of this site” through exhibits and programs. But LGBTQ+ activists saw the removal of the flag as a targeted insult meant to undermine the site, which fights for their rights and visibility.
Activists Michael Petrellis and Steven Love Menendez, who fought to get the Park Service to fly the Pride flag, said they were pleased with Monday’s agreement. But, they said, they were disappointed that other symbols, such as the more inclusive Progress Pride flags, were left out.
“I look forward to the day when the flag display can be restored to its original purpose allowing all iterations of LGBTQ+ flags to fly,” Menendez said. “Until then we will have the original rainbow flag flying to serve as a beacon of light.”
Democratic President Barack Obama erected the Stonewall monument in 2016.
After Trump returned to office last year, he took aim at diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and many references to transgender people were removed from the Stonewall memorial’s website and materials.
Trump’s administration has similarly put national parks, museums and landmarks under the messaging microscope, aiming to remove or change content that is “divisive or biased” or “inappropriately disparaging Americans.”
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Anthony Izaguirre contributed to this report.
