One word springs to mind when considering the Trump administration’s removal of the Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument: Ignorance.
There’s the obvious ignorance of history. Stonewall was the foundation of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, beginning with the riots of 1969. The rainbow colors were a product of the movement born out of Stonewall — one that, to this day, demands recognition and respect for all people regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity.
For the Pride flag not to fly over the very monument dedicated to every person who fought through the decades for that recognition and respect is the height of ignorance for LGBTQ+ Americans.
Then there’s the brazen ignorance of the second Trump administration, truly a group that thinks it can do whatever it wants, whenever it wants, to harm as many people as humanly possible.
It has tried to dehumanize the transgender community by restricting access to gender-affirming care and seeking to take the T out of LGBTQ+ by removing references to the transgender community from the Stonewall Monument’s site. Later, it also removed references to bisexual Americans.
And when New York officials grew incensed over the removal of the Pride flag from Stonewall, Trump’s Department of the Interior (which administers the Stonewall Monument via the National Park Service) responded with a statement seemingly written by a right-wing Twitter troll — avoiding the issue altogether, and instead attacking elected officials and lying about the city’s quality of life.
The iconoclastic ignorance of the Trump administration at Stonewall is not only a threat to the LGBTQ+ community in New York and beyond, but to all Americans who value freedom, civil rights, the Constitution, and respect.
Make no mistake, this isn’t about mere symbolism; this is a state-sanctioned attack on an entire segment of the population. It is an effort to diminish and dehumanize LGBTQ+ Americans and take away their voice and their power.
And if this state-sanctioned attack succeeds in marginalizing one community, then other communities will suffer the same fate.
We cannot allow this ignorance to continue. The Trump administration must stop its brazen attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, and restore the rainbow flag to its rightful place above the Stonewall Monument immediately.
And the people of this city must send a message to their representatives on Capitol Hill: Stop supporting Trump’s agenda until his regime stops attacking his fellow Americans.
