Hundreds of people gathered in Lower Manhattan to replace a large rainbow Pride flag at the Stonewall National Monument after the Trump administration removed it earlier in the week. The flag was raised during a public ceremony at the monument in Christopher Park, where a pole and memorial mark the site of the 1969 protests that helped catalyze the modern U.S. gay rights movement.
The ceremony was led by Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal and attended by officials from city, state and federal levels. Shortly after the flag was secured to the pole, Hoylman-Sigal said, "The community should rejoice. We have prevailed," adding, "Our flag represents dignity and human rights."
Organizers and attendees framed the event as an act of opposition to the federal decision to remove the flag. The National Park Service, which has federal oversight of Stonewall and other national monuments, said earlier in the week that it managed the flagpole at Stonewall and removed the flag in order to apply a "longstanding policy" consistently across its sites.
An Interior Department spokesperson declined to say whether the department, which oversees the agency with jurisdiction at Stonewall, planned to remove the flag again. When reached for comment after the return ceremony, an Interior Department spokesperson described the action as a "political stunt." The spokesperson also criticized city officials, saying, "Today’s political pageantry shows how utterly incompetent and misaligned the New York City officials are with the problems their city is facing."
Reaction among New Yorkers at the scene was strong. Mike Hisey, who was present, described the removal as an act of violence by President Donald Trump’s administration toward the LGBT community. Nichole Mallete said the community would not be intimidated, telling the crowd, "So he wants to take our flag. Go ahead. Because we have a million more to put up."
The flagpole and monument stand inside Christopher Park, which commemorates the place where gay, lesbian and transgender New Yorkers rioted and protested following a late-night police raid of the Stonewall Inn in 1969. That uprising is widely recognized as a pivotal moment for the gay rights movement.
Officials who took part in the hoisting framed the event as a reclaiming of symbolic space. At the same time, the federal agency responsible for the site has indicated the removal earlier in the week was intended to ensure consistent application of policy across National Park Service-managed locations. The Interior Department's response after the flag's return underscored a continuing uncertainty about the flag's status and the potential for further federal action.
Clear summary: City, state and federal elected officials led hundreds of New Yorkers in returning a Pride flag to the Stonewall National Monument after it had been removed by the Trump administration earlier in the week. The National Park Service cited consistent application of policy in its earlier removal, while the Interior Department labeled the restoration a "political stunt" and did not say whether it would remove the flag again.