Trump admin yanks rainbow flag from NYC’s Stonewall monument

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The Trump administration has yanked down a large rainbow flag from in front of the Stonewall National Monument in Greenwich Village, infuriating gay-rights supporters. 

The National Park Service quietly removed the flag from a pole in Christopher Park in front of the famed Stonewall Inn in Manhattan.

The agency told the Gay City News on Monday that an US Department of the Interior directive only allows for the American flag and other authorized flags to fly on federal poles, with “limited exceptions.”

The National Park Service quietly removed the flag from a pole in Christopher Park in front of the famed Stonewall Inn in Manhattan. Gabriella Bass

“It’s disgusting. It’s outrageous,’’ fumed Allen Roskoff, 75, the founder of the Jim Owles LGBT Liberal Democratic Club who came out at age 19, shortly after the 1969 Stonewall Riots that sparked the nation’s modern gay-rights movement.

West Village resident Daniel Mercurio, 58, added, “The flag isn’t a political symbol, it’s an American symbol.

“I can’t stand seeing the government instituting some obscure flag rule as an excuse to enforce its xenophobic agenda,’’ he told The Post.

Mercurio was one of about 100 people who gathered at the site Tuesday to demand the flag be put back at the historically important site.

Flag pole at the Stonewall National Monument in the west village, after the National Park Service removed the Pride Flag from the pole on the grounds, overnight. William Farrington for NY Post

The National Park Service did not respond to an inquiry from The Post.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin joined in the outrage over the flag’s removal.

But there doesn’t appear to be much they can do.

There doesn’t appear to be much Mayor Mamdani can do about the removal. Mayor Mamdani/X

The city donated the 0.12-acre Christopher Park to the federal government in 2016, the same year former President Barack Obama designated Stonewall National Monument as a national monument, according to the National Parks Service.

The rainbow flag had been permanently flying at the site since 2022 — first rainbow flag to permanently fly over federal land.

Activists speak at Stonewall National Park in the West Village after the Trump Administration removed the LGBTQ rainbow flag that has flown in the historical park for decades. Gabriella Bass

“New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history,’’ Mamdani tweeted. “Our city has a duty not just to honor this legacy, but to live up to it.”

Menin as well as some other council members fired off a letter to Jessica Bowron, the director of the National Parks Service, to express their “extreme concern” over the flag’s removal and demand its return.

“This decision sends a deeply troubling message, one that shows the world that we are willing to sanitize and erase our history and the very values that make America great,” the letter said.

People walk past The Stonewall Inn after authorities removed the Pride flag from the Greenwich Village site of the Stonewall National Monument, where LGBTQ+ rights movement was born, in New York City, U.S., February 10, 2026. REUTERS

Stonewall co-owner Stacy Lentz said she and her partners only learned late Monday that the rainbow flag had vanished.

“I don’t think this is a flag that just represents politics,” Lentz told The Post. “It really is a historical landmark, and it was made a national monument because it’s the first place of the LGBTQ rights movement.

“It’s not a political symbol. It’s a historical one.”

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