The Trump administration’s removal of the multicolor gay pride flag from the federal Stonewall National Monument in Greenwich Village insults history and must be reversed. That flag has to fly again at Stonewall, the birthplace of the movement for LGBTQ rights.
The reason for hauling down the banner is ostensibly a directive issued last month by the Department of the Interior, banning almost all flags and pennants other than the U.S. flag and the agency’s own.
This directive as a whole is nonsensical. National Park Service sites around the country have for many years been flying flags chosen at their own discretion without incident. Yet it is especially insulting to remove this particular flag from this particular place in a way that seems designed mainly to spit in the face of one marginalized group.
Even when working within the constraints of Interior’s own misguided directive, there is an obvious exception that would apply to the pride flag flown at Stonewall, which is for flags that provide historical context. That the exception is not specifically defined would suggest that there is some level of interpretability that Park staff can use, and it’s hard to think of a clearer-cut case of historical context than a pride flag flying over a park commemorating the LGBTQ movement in the United States.
In any case, why has the flag come down now, weeks after the directive was first issued? It wouldn’t surprise us if some bigot called in a complaint and the ideologues who now run every federal agency rushed to ensure that this bit of history and celebration was taken down.
There is something that President Trump’s followers in and out of government don’t seem able or willing to understand, and that is that, despite all their clout and power, they cannot dismantle diversity or pride. They can grouse about a proud Puerto Rican playing the Super Bowl halftime show and try to take down every plaque and flag and monument touching on these subjects — which really are reminders and celebrations of this country itself, which, despite many imperfections, has come to be home to people of all backgrounds and experiences — but they won’t destroy that memory or those values.
Even now, as Trump has armed federal agents stalking the nation in a xenophobic and deadly hunt for immigrants, they are finding bipartisan outrage and pushback, because that is not what Americans want.
So, no, taking down the pride flag at the Stonewall National Monument is not going to make it any less the site of a pivotal moment for LGBTQ rights, but that doesn’t mean this is not a victory worth celebrating (and it was indeed a victory, unlike for the Confederate traitors whose flags certain so-called conservatives seem much more eager to allow).
We commend Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal and other elected officials for planning to hoist the pride flag again at a demonstration on Thursday in an act that is sadly one of resistance in Trump’s vision of America. We hope they’re successful, and that the Department of the Interior and National Park Service know to leave well enough alone and apply the clear exemption here. If they choose to take it down, rest assured that the flag will still one day fly again, once the blight of Trump has been cleared from our government.
