The Pride flag was removed from Stonewall. That matters.

The Pride flag has been an enduring symbol of the LGBTQ+ community since 1978, when the first design by Gilbert Baker debuted at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade. Over the decades, the flag’s design has evolved from the original nine colors to six to versions including brown and black stripes to honor the BIPOC community, to the stripes and triangle Progress Flag we see often today. No matter the iteration, the Pride flag has spoken in bold, joyous colors, shouting in a visual way: We’re here, we’re queer, and we belong. There’s a reason the LGBTQ+ community is referred to as such, because under the bright hues of the Pride flag, no matter our differences, we are one. 

On the evening of February 9, the Trump Administration had the Pride flag at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City removed. Now those colors no longer fly at one of the country’s most hallowed sites of LGBTQ+ history. The Stonewall Riots began in New York’s West Village on June 28, 1969, after the patrons of the Stonewall Inn were subjected to an endless onslaught of police raids, arrests and violence, just for wearing clothing of the opposite sex or dancing with a same-sex partner. On that fateful night in June, patrons pushed back against this oppression. Protests continued for six days and became the key moment for the LGBTQ+ equality movement. While Stonewall had been considered the historic site for LGBTQ+ liberation for close to 50 years, it wasn’t officially designated as so until 2016. And while it may seem like the Pride flag has always been flying there, that long fought victory only officially came in June 2022, thanks to the work of advocates and the Biden Administration. 

The removal of the Pride flag comes a year after references to transgender, bisexual and queer people were removed from the monument’s website. 

According to a statement made by National Park Service spokesperson to local queer media outlet Gay City News, which first reported the story, “Under government-wide guidance, including General Services Administration policy and Department of the Interior direction, 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. Stonewall National Monument continues to preserve and interpret the site’s historic significance through exhibits and programs.”

If Stonewall does not warrant an exception, what does?

As a young lesbian in the early 2000s, I visited Stonewall on my first trip to New York. I vividly remember taking the train from Morningside Heights down to Christopher Street. For me, it was a pilgrimage, a spiritual trek. I sat with the famous statues, and I drank at the Stonewall Inn. For the first time, I felt like I was truly part of something so much bigger than me. 

That feeling never left me and today I’m a journalist covering LGBTQ+ issues. I get to work with my heroes, people like Mark Segal, who participated in the Stonewall riots as a teen and started one of the country’s legacy LGBTQ+ media publications, The Philadelphia Gay News. I do what I do to honor people like Mark, and for young queer and trans kids who are looking for something like I was those many years ago. Removing the Pride flag doesn’t remove our history, but it sends a message. It says, we want you to lose your touchstones in this fight. We prefer you to be invisible. 

That’s why the Pride flag is such an enduring symbol and why its removal at Stonewall should feel like a four-alarm fire. A Pride flag hanging in a coffee shop in Melbourne or a restaurant in Amsterdam is a universal symbol that you are more than welcome. You are family. You are loved. 

When sacred symbols are hidden or quietly removed, it is an attempt to devalue identity. An identity people have fought for, bled for, and died for. That struggle is not confined to the past. It is unfolding now, in small towns and major cities across the country, where Pride flags still fly despite growing pressure to take them down.

While politicians like Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Senator Chuck Schumer have expressed outrage at the flag’s removal, ultimately, it rests with the people. As it did on a summer night in 1969, just a few feet from where that flag once flew.

Dana Piccoli is the editor of News is Out.