New legislation to keep Pride flag flying permanently at Stonewall Monument proposed
The Pride flag has been raised once more outside the Stonewall National Monument (TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP via Getty Images)
New legislation has been proposed to make the LGBTQ+ Pride flag a congressionally authorised flag, meaning it would permanently fly at the Stonewall National Monument without removal.
The proposal comes after the Trump administration quietly – and controversially – took down the Pride flag flying from the Stonewall National Monument flagpole.
The site, which commemorates the historic 1969 riot outside the Stonewall Inn which was led by trans women of colour in the early days of the fight for LGBTQ+ rights, was officially awarded national monument status in 2016 by president Barack Obama.
A spokesperson for the National Park Service, which oversees many national monuments across the US, said the removal took place because under Trump administration rules “only the US flag and other congressionally or departmentally authorised flags are flown on NPS-managed flagpoles, with limited exceptions”.
A memorandum issued by the Department of Interior, the National Park Service’s parent department, dated 21 January set out that only the US flag, Department of Interior flag and POW/MIA flag would be flown from in public spaces where the National Park Service is responsible for the upkeep, maintenance, and operation of the flag and flagpole.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community condemned the removal of the Pride flag as a “deliberate act of erasure” – which came nearly a year after references to trans and bisexual people were stripped from the Stonewall National Monument’s website – and swiftly reinstalled the Pride flag.
In response, senate minority leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, has now proposed legislation to designate the Pride flag a congressionally authorised symbol whereby it would be protected from removal the same way the US flag is.
“The Trump administration’s removal of the Pride Rainbow Flag from the Stonewall National Monument is a deeply outrageous action that must be reversed,” Schumer said at a press conference on (15 February). “It’s an f****** disgrace. It’s just awful.”
“I am introducing legislation to designate the Pride Flag as a congressionally authorised flag in America, and that means it can be flown here and everywhere else,” Schumer continued. “No one, no one, can take it down.”
The Democrat condemned the Trump administration’s removal of the flag as a “deeply outrageous action”, adding: “Rights that are not secured in law can be threatened and symbols that are not protected can be stripped away. The flag that lies here is not decoration.”
Praising the action of the community, Manhattan Borough president Brad Hoylman-Sigal – the first out LGBTQ+ borough president – said: “Our movement, which began here back in June 1969, is much more than a piece of cloth flapping in the wind, senator, as you know, and when that flag was removed, we as a community stood up and said, that’s not right.”
Stacy Lentz, co-owner of the Stonewall Inn, said: “I just want to make it clear we are not going to be erased, a human rights struggle from American history. I understand what the flag represents to some people, to see it intertwined with American flag is moving. Our history matters.”
