New York (AFP) – The Trump administration has given the green light for the LGBTQ rainbow flag to once again fly above New York’s Stonewall, a US national monument to the struggle for gay equality, a rights group that sued for its return said Monday. The administration had taken down the flag in February from the listed site in Manhattan, under a National Park Service edict prohibiting the display of flags other than the Stars and Stripes, with some limited exceptions.
The Stonewall National Monument commemorates riots that erupted in June 1969 after a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, an inciting event in the history of US LGBTQ activism. According to the Washington Litigation Group, which initiated legal proceedings in New York to demand the return of the rainbow colors, the administration agreed, under a settlement, to reinstall the flag permanently.
“The government has acknowledged what we argued from day one: the Pride flag belongs at Stonewall. The flag will be restored and it will fly officially and permanently. And we will remain vigilant to ensure that the government sticks to the deal,” said Alexander Kristofcak, lead counsel for plaintiffs and a lawyer with Washington Litigation Group. The case they argued, which the administration accepted, is that unofficial flags can be permissible on certain sites — as long as their display is justified by a historical context.
The removal of the Stonewall rainbow flag had provoked the anger of LGBTQ groups and many local elected officials. Activists erected a replacement flag in protest. Since returning to the White House, US President Donald Trump has put the brakes on LGBTQ rights progress — particularly on the rights of transgender people. On his inauguration day, he decreed that there were only two biological sexes, male and female, and has since sought to limit access to gender-affirming treatment.
© 2024 AFP
