“We fought the Trump administration and won,” said Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Democrat who helped organize a protest Pride flag raising at the monument after the government-authorized banner was removed. “We as an LGBTQ community celebrate the legal climb-down by the gutless Trump Administration on their contemptuous attempt to erase queer people from American history at Stonewall, the birthplace of the worldwide LGBTQ human rights movement,” said Hoylman-Sigal, who is the first openly gay person elected to his job. The Gilbert Baker Foundation, which honors the Pride flag creator who died in 2017, was among the organizations that sued over its removal from the Stonewall monument. “Stonewall is sacred ground in the fight for LGBTQ+ liberation, and this resolution helps ensure that the Rainbow Flag will continue to fly there, where it belongs,” foundation president Charley Beal said. The Pride flag had become a flashpoint for arguments over President Donald Trump ’s approach to the Stonewall site — the first national monument commemorating LGBTQ+ history — and various other historical properties. After a yearslong campaign by activists who wanted the flag symbolizing LGBTQ+ pride to be flown daily inside the park service-run site, the banner was formally installed in 2022 during Democratic President Joe Biden ’s tenure.
on April 13, 2026, 3:50 pm
Trump administration agrees to return rainbow Pride flag to New York’s Stonewall monument
By JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK
NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration said Monday it will resume flying a rainbow Pride flag on a federal flagpole at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City, reversing course after removing the banner in February.
The government revealed the decision in court papers as it agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by LGBTQ+ and historic preservation groups who had sought to block the removal. A judge must still approve the deal.
The Interior Department and National Park Service “have confirmed their intention to maintain a Pride flag at Stonewall,” lawyers for the government and the groups wrote in a joint court filing.
The flag — one of several Pride banners flown at the 7.7-acre (3.1-hectare) Stonewall monument — won’t be removed, except for “maintenance or other practical purposes,” the filing said.
Under the agreement, within a week, the park service will hang three flags on the flagpole it maintains at the monument. The Pride flag will be positioned below the U.S. flag, in accordance with the U.S. flag code, and above the park service flag. Each will measure three feet by five feet (.9 meters by 1.5 meters).
The site also features a large Pride banner on a city-controlled flag pole and small rainbow flags on a fence surrounding the monument. Those have stayed up the whole time.
ChristopherBlackwell
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