Trump administration agrees to return rainbow Pride flag to New York’s
Stonewall monument
[April 14, 2026]
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 two months after
removing the banner from the first national monument commemorating LGBTQ+
history.
The government revealed the decision in court papers as it agreed to
settle a lawsuit filed by advocacy and historic preservation groups who
had sought to block the Feb. 9 removal. A judge approved 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 at the 7.7-acre (3.1-hectare)
park — 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 its flagpole at the monument. The Pride flag will be positioned
below the U.S. flag, in accordance with U.S. flag code, and above the
park service flag. Each will measure 3 feet by 5 feet (0.9 meters by 1.5
meters).
The site also features a large Pride flag on a city-controlled flagpole
and smaller flags on a fence surrounding the monument, which is across
the street from the Stonewall Inn, the gay bar where a 1969 police raid
sparked an uprising and helped catalyze the modern LGBTQ+ rights
movement. Those flags weren't removed.
“We fought the Trump administration and won,” said Manhattan Borough
President Brad Hoylman-Sigal wrote on X. The Democrat helped organize a
protest Pride flag raising 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,” Hoylman-Sigal, the first openly gay
person elected to his job, wrote.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat, called the Trump administration’s
reversal “a victory for the LGBTQ+ community and for our entire city”
and “a reminder that New Yorkers won’t let our history be rewritten.”
The Gilbert Baker Foundation, which honors the Pride flag creator who
died in 2017, was among the organizations that sued over the removal.
“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 Republican
President Donald Trump ’s approach to Stonewall and various other
historical properties.
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People demonstrate after New York politicians and activists raised a
rainbow flag on a pole across the street from the Stonewall Inn,
Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in New York, a few days after it was
removed by the National Park Service to comply with guidance from
the Trump administration. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
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
Democrat Joe Biden ’s tenure.
At the time, park service officials called it a sign of the
government’s commitment to “telling the complex and diverse
histories of all Americans.”
When it removed the flag in February, the park service said it was
complying with federal guidance on flag displays. A Jan. 21 memo
largely restricted the agency to displaying U.S., Interior
Department and POW/MIA flags, with exemptions that include providing
“historical context.”
The park service insisted the monument “remains committed to
preserving and interpreting the history and significance of this
site” through exhibits and programs. But LGBTQ+ activists saw the
flag’s removal as a targeted affront meant to diminish a site that
is all about their fight for rights and visibility.
Activists Michael Petrelis and Steven Love Menendez, who fought to
have the park service fly the Pride flag, said they were pleased
with Monday's agreement. But, they said, they were dismayed that
other symbols, such as the even more inclusive Progress Pride flag,
were left out.
“I look forward to the day when the flag display can restored to its
original intent that allows all iterations of LGBTQ+ flags to fly,”
Menendez said. “Until then at least we have the original rainbow
flag flying to serve as a beacon of light.”
Democratic President Barack Obama created the Stonewall monument in
2016.
After Trump returned to office last year, he took aim at diversity,
equity and inclusion initiatives, and many references to transgender
people were excised from the Stonewall monument’s website and
materials.
Trump’s administration similarly has put national parks, museums and
landmarks under a messaging microscope, aiming to remove or alter
materials that it says are “divisive or partisan” or
“inappropriately disparage Americans.”
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Anthony Izaguirre contributed to this report.
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