A Symbol of Defiance The Rainbow Flag is Raised Again at Stonewall Park by The Crowd
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“We did it,” said Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal after helping raise the flag near an existing American flag in a tiny Greenwich Village park jammed with more than a hundred people. Many onlookers chanted “Raise it Up!”
“If you can’t fly a Pride flag steps from Stonewall monument, at the National monument for LGBTQ liberation, where can you fly it?” asked Hoylman-Sigal, a Democrat who is the first openly gay person elected to his job. “So we put it back.”
Until a few days ago, the flag had flown for several years on a flagpole in the park at the heart of the National Park Service-run site. The park 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+ right
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LGBTQ+ activists have defied the Trump administration by reinstalling a Pride flag at the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan — just days after federal officials removed it.
The Pride flag had been taken down under new January guidance limiting which flags may be flown at sites managed by the National Park Service (NPS). The move sparked immediate backlash, with community leaders vowing to restore the symbol at the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.
On Thursday (12 February), as promised by Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal and State Senator Erik Bottcher, a ceremony was held in Christopher Park to raise the Pride flag once more.
A Compromise — and a Defiant Response
The initial plan encountered an unexpected obstacle. The newly raised Pride flag was attached to a temporary flagpole positioned beside the original one, meaning it flew at half-mast and lower than the American flag.
For many in the crowd, that compromise did not go far enough.
Activists Jay W Walker and Josh Tjaden took matters into their own hands, reinstalling the Pride flag onto the original flagpole so that it could fly fully and prominently — alongside, and slightly higher than, the American flag.
Walker told Gay City News:
“OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS, THOUGH I LOVE THEM, BROUGHT IN THEIR OWN FLAGPOLE AND PLANTED IT IN THE GROUND IN FRONT OF IT, AND THEIR PLASTIC POLE WAS LOWER THAN THAT FLAGPOLE, SO IT RESULTED IN OUR RAINBOW FLAG BEING LOWER THAN [THE AMERICAN FLAG] AND NOT ON THE ACTUAL FLAGPOLE.
THE LEAST WE COULD DO IS TO PUT OUR FLAG HIGHER ON THIS CORD THAN THE AMERICAN FLAG.”
A Symbol of Resistance
The Pride flag had originally been installed at the monument in 2022 under President Joe Biden.
For many attendees, the reinstallation represented more than a dispute over flag protocol — it was a statement about history and belonging.
Angelica Christina, director of the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative, said:
“I FEEL SO EMPOWERED TO SAY MY COMMUNITY SHOWED UP EN MASSE.
TO HAVE OUR SPACE INVADED LIKE THIS IS CRIMINAL. AND, OF COURSE, THE PERSON THAT IS DIRECTING THESE SYCOPHANTS TO INVADE OUR HOME IS A 34-TIME CONVICTED FELON HIMSELF. WHAT TODAY MEANS IS RESILIENCE AND TAPPING INTO OUR LGBTQIA+ HISTORY.”
She added that the community would continue fighting for themselves and for future generations.
scene in Christopher Park underscored a broader message: at Stonewall, visibility is not optional. It is part of the legacy. And for many activists, ensuring the Pride flag flies high is about safeguarding that history from erasure.
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