The Trump administration’s quiet removal of the iconic LGBTQ pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument in New York City over the weekend has turned into a national flashpoint, with local, state, and national elected officials denouncing the move and vowing to re-raise the flag in defiance of the administration’s edict — setting off a potential fight with the White House.
The U.S. Congressional Equality Caucus declared the removal of the flag was “erasure, plain and simple. They can take down our flag, but they’ll never stop us from fighting for equal rights for EVERY person.”
Coverage has gone national: CBS Evening News, ABC’s Good Morning America, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN, NCRM, and many other outlets have reported it.
The New York Daily News editorial board called the removal of the flag an “insult,” and insisted that the “flag has to fly again at Stonewall, the birthplace of the movement for LGBTQ rights.”
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“The removal of the Pride Rainbow Flag from the Stonewall National Monument is a deeply outrageous action that must be reversed immediately,” Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement to The Advocate. “Stonewall is a landmark because it is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement, and symbols of that legacy belong there by both history and principle.”
U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) declared, “They can take down the flag, but they can’t rewrite history, they can’t erase us from the community, and they will never stop our fight for equality.”
Tuesday night, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal and about 200 locals demonstrated at the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. Washington Square News reported that the demonstration was co-organized by local activist groups.
Hoylman-Sigal and other elected lawmakers have vowed to re-raise the flag at an event on Thursday. In a message to NCRM, he said that those expected to attend include U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), New York State Senators Erik Bottcher and Brian Kavanaugh, and New York State Assembly Members Deborah Glick and Tony Simone.
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Image via Reuters