A large Pride flag has been removed from a flagpole at the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan, weeks after the Department of the Interior issued federal guidance on displaying “non-agency” flags in the National Park System.
Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the Manhattan borough president, said that the directive from the Trump administration, issued on Jan. 21, led to the removal of the flag from the Greenwich Village monument, which commemorates the birthplace of the modern L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement.
In response to questions about the flag’s removal, the National Park Service on Tuesday pointed to the government’s memo from last month, saying in a statement that “only the U.S. flag and other congressionally or departmentally authorized flags are flown on NPS-managed flagpoles, with limited exceptions.”
“Any changes to flag displays are made to ensure consistency with that guidance,” it added, saying that the monument continues to preserve the site’s historic significance through exhibits and programs. It was unclear who had removed the flag, and when it had happened.
The removal of the flag is the latest step in the Trump administration’s rollback of diversity initiatives, echoing a State Department order issued last year requiring that only U.S. flags be flown at American embassies and consulates worldwide. That marked a shift from the Biden administration, which at times displayed Pride and Black Lives Matter flags.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader from New York, said in a statement: “The removal of the Pride Rainbow Flag from the Stonewall National Monument is a deeply outrageous action that must be reversed right now.”
He added: “New Yorkers are right to be outraged, but if there’s one thing I know about this latest attempt to rewrite history, stoke division and discrimination, and erase our community pride it’s this: That flag will return. New Yorkers will see to it.”
Mr. Hoylman-Sigal criticized the decision in an interview.
“The mean-spiritedness of the Trump administration seems to know no bounds,” said Mr. Hoylman-Sigal, who is gay. “But we as a community are not going to take it standing by idly as our history, and by extension our human rights, are attempted to be erased.”
Chester Streeper, a bartender and manager at the Stonewall Inn, across the street from the monument, said he noticed that the flag was missing when he arrived for work on Monday. “It’s ridiculous, as usual,” he said in an interview early Tuesday.
The Interior Department, which oversees the National Park Service, said its directive was issued to provide guidance to site managers on the procedures for displaying “non-agency flags” at national parks.
It said that flagpoles at buildings under control of the General Services Administration and Department of the Interior “are not intended to serve as a forum for free expression by the public.”
The directive, however, listed a number of exemptions, including flags that provide historical context, flags that are part of a historic re-enactment or flags of Tribal nations affiliated with parks.
The Park Service has previously been criticized for changes it has made at the Stonewall National Monument. In February of last year, the agency removed the word “transgender” from prominent sections on the monument’s website, prompting hundreds of people to gather at the Greenwich Village site to protest what they saw as an attack on the symbolic heart of the gay rights movement.
Stonewall is the first historic site in the United States dedicated to the nation’s gay rights movement. The Stonewall Inn, a bar on Christopher Street, has long been seen as a cradle of the movement after a police raid there in June 1969 set off three days of protests and riots in the surrounding streets.
The original Pride flag debuted in 1978, according to the Park Service website, a few years after the Stonewall uprising, with each of the eight colors symbolizing an aspect of the L.G.B.T.Q. community’s experience.
In 2016, President Obama designated the 7.7-acre site as a national monument, encompassing the Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park and several nearby streets and sidewalks. Parts of the site are also designated as a city landmark and a state historical site.
Mr. Hoylman-Sigal said he and other local representatives are planing to raise the flag at the monument again on Thursday.
“We may be prevented from doing so,” he said. “But if we don’t seize this moment, and this outrage, I think we’ll let down generations of queer activists.”
Liam Stack and Michael Gold contributed reporting.
Jonathan Wolfe is a Times reporter based in London, covering breaking news.
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