Bigoted gov’t takes pride flag down at Stonewall Park; mass protest raises it back up

New York City

In the wee hours of the morning on Feb. 10, hidden by the dark of night, National Park Service personnel outrageously removed the Stonewall Park’s historic pride flag, designed by artist Gilbert Baker. They replaced the Progress Pride flag with the U.S. flag, using it as a prop in the effort to erase LGBTQIA2S+ history and the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969.

Protest at Stonewall Park to restore the pride flag, New York City, February 2026. (WW Photo: Renée Andrea Imperato)

Within hours, Jay Walker and LGBTQIA2S+ activists of Action Network called an emergency rally to gather in Stonewall Park later that day to protest the Trump administration’s bigoted, fascistic erasure campaign, carried out with outright arrogance at the site of the Stonewall Rebellion. It was an outrage against the queer community. That this outrage would never be tolerated by LGBTQIA2S+ people was shown when on merely two hours notice. Hundreds of activists and supporters filled Sheridan Square.

On that afternoon of Feb. 10, people in the crowd started chanting and demanding that participants scale the flagpole right then and there and raise the pride flag. It was decided to call for the raising of the flag for Thursday, Feb. 12, at 4 p.m.

The bourgeois corporate media reported that Democratic Party politicians suggested raising the pride flag. This is far from the truth. All the masses of queer people at the rally made the demand and only afterwards did some politicians jump in and support it, which was the right thing to do.

At Stonewall

As I approached Stonewall Park and Stonewall Inn, which directly face each other, I noticed the big U.S. flag flying in the park. I had never seen that flag over the years and thousands of times I have walked by and used the park.

Symbolically, the U.S. flag was used as a prop to erase our history and decades of struggle that cannot be counted.

In February 2025, the National Park service removed all mentions of transgender people from this site and its website — and Stonewall is the center of the rebellion led by transgender people of color — Marsha P. Johnson, who threw the first brick at the cops, Sylvia Rivera, Miss Major and others. Then last June they banned the trans and the Progress Pride flag from being displayed at the monument itself.

On Friday, Feb. 13, the pride flag was flying in its rightful place. When I passed by Feb. 14, however, I noticed that the pride flag was still on the flagpole but underneath the U.S. flag. The U.S. flag had never been there before this week.

This is a sign that all of us must stay alert and on guard to defend our pride flag from being replaced again. Let the National Park Service take notice that we will be watching. If they take our pride flag down again, we will be back to raise it again!

Stonewall means fight back!

Stonewall was a rebellion!