LGBTQ Pride Flag Allowed to Fly Again at Stonewall
The Trump administration has given the green light for the LGBTQ rainbow flag to fly above New York’s Stonewall, a US national monument to the struggle for gay equality, once again.
The administration removed the flag in February from the listed site in Manhattan under a National Park Service edict prohibiting the display of flags other than the Stars and Stripes, with limited exceptions.
The Stonewall National Monument commemorates the riots that erupted in June 1969 after a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, an inciting event in the history of US LGBTQ activism.
According to the Washington Litigation Group, which initiated legal proceedings in New York to demand the return of the rainbow colors, the administration agreed, under a settlement, to permanently reinstall the flag.
“The government has acknowledged what we argued from day one: the Pride flag belongs at Stonewall. The flag will be restored and fly officially and permanently. And we will remain vigilant to ensure that the government sticks to the deal,” said Alexander Kristofcak, lead counsel for the plaintiffs and a lawyer with Washington Litigation Group.
The case they argued, which the administration accepted, is that unofficial flags can be permissible on certain sites, as long as their display is justified by historical context. The removal of the Stonewall rainbow flag provoked anger among LGBTQ groups and many local elected officials. Activists erected a replacement flag in protest.
Since returning to the White House, US President Donald Trump has cracked down on LGBTQ rights progress – particularly on the legal rights of transgender people and the legal expression of their identities.
A note from the Gilbert Baker Foundation
Today the Gilbert Baker Foundation is celebrating the resolution of our lawsuit challenging the removal of the Rainbow Flag from the Stonewall National Monument by the National Parks Service, marking a significant victory for LGBTQ+ visibility, history, and civil rights. This resolution ensures the flag will continue to fly at the monument, under current law and policy, affirming its rightful place at the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.
Created by Gilbert Baker in 1978, the Rainbow Flag remains an enduring global symbol of hope, dignity, and pride for all people. The Gilbert Baker Foundation believes that this outcome reflects the strength of the pro-LGBTQ+ coalition in the face of growing hostility and the importance of defending LGBTQ+ symbols in public life.
We are deeply grateful to our legal partners at Lambda Legal and Washington Litigation Group for their exceptional advocacy, and to our co-plaintiffs Equality New York and Village Preservation for their partnership and leadership in this effort. This outcome reflects the strength of coalition and the power of standing together in defense of our community.
While we celebrate this victory, our work is not finished. The Gilbert Baker Foundation remains committed to ensuring that all members of the LGBTQ+ community are fully represented in our shared public spaces. That includes continued efforts—through advocacy, public engagement, and, when necessary, legal action—to ensure that the full spectrum of our community’s flags, including the Transgender Flag and others, are permitted to fly at Stonewall and across the country.
Fighting for our community’s flags to fly freely is our mandate. When flag bans began across America in 2022, the Gilbert Baker Foundation launched our Save The Rainbow Flag initiative. Working with community activists, we have succeeded in overturning or preventing a dozen bans. And we are helping activists around the globe as well, including in Ukraine, Kenya, and Japan. But our work is far from over; there are currently more than 60 pride flag bans in the United States alone.
It must be reaffirmed that the foundation fights for all of our community flags, whether it’s Gilbert Baker’s original Rainbow Flag, the Progress Flag, the Trans Flag, or the More Colors Flag. In fact, we currently support another federal lawsuit in Hamtramck, Michigan, where officials approved a citywide ban of the Progress Flag. When any of these community flags are threatened, we all are in danger. The Gilbert Baker Foundation is pledged to continue battling the bigots who are trying to erase us.
When in New York City, be sure to visit and stay nearby Christopher Street and the Stonewall Monument and of course the Stonewall Inn. Browse the top hotels here.
