The administration of Donald Trump has sparked controversy by removing the rainbow flag, a symbol of LGBTQ people, at the Stonewall National Monument, the birthplace of the LGBTQ movement in the United States.

According to the AP on the 10th (local time), the Trump administration halted the flying of the rainbow flag at the Stonewall National Monument in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York. The National Park Service stated, “We fly only the U.S. flag and other flags approved by Congress or departments on flagpoles we manage, and exceptions are limited,” adding, “All changes regarding flag-flying are intended to maintain consistency with these guidelines.”

The Stonewall uprising began in 1969 when police raided the gay bar ‘Stonewall Inn’ and arrested gay people. In response, LGBTQ people held protests in the surrounding streets, and the struggle spread across the United States. In 2016, former President Barack Obama designated as a national monument the sites where the uprising took place, including the Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park, and nearby streets. It was the first time an LGBTQ-related site had been designated a U.S. national monument.

Democratic leaders of New York City and Manhattan agencies successively criticized the Trump administration. New York Mayor Joran Mamdani said in a statement, “New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement, and no act of erasing history can change or silence it,” adding, “Our city not only respects this legacy but also has an obligation to live up to it.” Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate Majority Leader, also demanded an immediate reversal, calling it “a very unjust act to remove the rainbow flag symbolizing LGBTQ rights from the Stonewall National Monument.”

From that afternoon, people gathered at the Stonewall Inn to protest the removal of the flag. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the Manhattan Borough President, said that public officials and citizens would hold a protest on the 12th against the Trump administration’s decision and would raise the rainbow flag again at the Stonewall monument.

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Since taking office, President Trump has pursued measures to delete references to or symbols related to LGBTQ people from government agencies. Agencies such as the State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deleted LGBTQ-related terms, including transgender, queer, and intersex, from their websites.