NEW YORK — City leaders rehung the Pride flag in front of the Stonewall National Monument in a chaotic scene here Thursday that included an American flag briefly being removed, a rebuke of the Trump administration’s efforts to take down the symbol of the gay rights movement from federal property.
At a ceremony at the Stonewall Inn, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal (D) was joined by city, state and federal elected officials to raise the flag on a pole at the eight-acre property controlled by the National Park Service.
The ceremony was a direct challenge to the Trump administration, which removed the Pride flag over the weekendand replaced it with the American flag. The Park Service said the Pride flag was taken down to comply with an Interior Department order limiting what types of flags and logos can be displayed on federal property.
The decision outraged New York leaders and activists, who accused the Park Service of trying to “erase” the history of the nation’s LGBTQ+ community. By quickly rehoisting it, New York leaders appeared eager to intensify tensions with the White House while pushing New York back into the forefront of the nation’s cultural battles.
After using zip ties to attach a new Pride flag to the flag pole, Hoylman-Sigal declared victory. “We have raised our flag,” he said though a bullhorn. “We have brought pride back to our sacred space.”
But people in the crowd, outraged the Pride flag was positioned below the U.S. flag, began shouting at political leaders, including Democratic Reps. Dan Goldman and Jerry Nadler, to “raise the flag” even higher.
Seconds later, two people, including one who scaled a four-foot iron fence, entered the park and took down the American flag. As most political leaders fled the courtyard amid chants of “shame,” the two people worked with a knife and string to realign the flags so the Pride flag was flown slightly higher than the U.S. flag.
“It is not fair to have our flag flying not as high,” the person who scaled the fence, who identified themselves as Tirha but declined to provide a last name, said as they nursed bloody fingers. “I’m a trans person, and I’ve been bullied a lot in life, and it’s been terrifying watching what has been happening in the U.S.”
The White House referred questions about the flag’s reappearance to the National Park Service.
“While today’s political stunt is a distraction from their recent deadly failures, it would be a better use of their time to get the trash buildup off city streets, ensure there are no more avoidable deaths, and work to keep the power on for the people of New York City,” said a spokesperson for the Interior Department. “Today’s political pageantry shows how utterly incompetent and misaligned the New York City officials are with the problems their city is facing.”
In recent days, demonstrators gathered at the monument demanding it be rehung. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) also traveled to the Greenwich Village bar on Tuesday to decry the removal of the flag.
“Taking down the Pride flag, it’s mean-spirited,” Hochul said in a video she made during her visit. “It’s mean-spirited to a community that often feels under attack.”
Several prominent New Yorkers, including “Sex and the City” star Sarah Jessica Parker, have also spoken out in support of keeping the Pride flag raised in front of the Stonewall Inn.
“Question? You think if you remove our flag, we’re going to not care or remember?” Parker asked in an Instagram video shot on the grounds of the monument. “Yeah, we want our flag back.”
The Stonewall Inn became the center of the gay rights movement after a riot erupted following a 1969 police raid at the Greenwich Village bar. Demonstrations continued for days, as groups coalesced to form a nascent gay rights movement.
A year later, the nation’s first gay pride march was held in New York, a celebration that spread to numerous cities throughout the 1970s. By the later part of the decade, gay rights activists had adopted a multicolored flag as a symbol of their movement.
In 2016, under President Barack Obama, eight acres around the Stonewall Inn, including Christopher Park, became a national monument governed by the Park Service. It was the nation’s first national monument dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community. A visitors’ center, funded with private donations, opened next to the Stonewall Inn in 2024.
New York’s Democratic U.S. senators, Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, have called on the National Park Service to keep the Pride flag at the monument. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) and City Council Speaker Julie Menin (D) also decried the flag’s removal.
“In the year of the United States of America’s 250th anniversary, American monuments like Stonewall matter more than ever,” Menin and other council members wrote to Jessica Bowron, the acting director of the National Park Service, on Tuesday. “This decision sends a deeply troubling message, one that shows the world that we are willing to sanitize our history and the very values that make America great.”
The controversy over the Pride flag is the latest action undertaken by the National Park Service to alter what images and historical artifacts are displayed on federal parkland and monuments. The Park Service has removed exhibits related to slavery, climate change and the treatment of Native Americans from national parks.
Park Service officials have defended the moves, saying they are complying with an executive order from Trump that seeks to remove “corrosive” and “partisan ideology” from federal parks and museums.
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