On Thursday, the National Park Service removed references to transgender individuals from its website for the Stonewall National Monument, a site in New York that commemorates the 1969 Stonewall riots, a pivotal event in the LGBTQ+ rights movement. This alteration followed an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office, which mandated the federal government to define sex strictly as male or female.
Governor Kathy Hochul of New York condemned these changes, describing them as “cruel and petty” on social media platform X. She emphasized the significant role of transgender individuals in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights and assured that New York would not allow their contributions to be erased from history. The Stonewall National Monument is situated in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, directly across from the historic Stonewall Inn, where the LGBTQ+ community resisted a police raid on June 28, 1969.
While the park service's website continued to feature information about the uprising and photographs of notable transgender activists, it had removed the terms “transgender” and “queer” from the text. References to the LGBTQ acronym were altered, with the letters T and Q being replaced by phrases like “LGB rights movement” or “LGB civil rights.”
Organizations associated with the Stonewall Inn, including The Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative, voiced their outrage regarding these omissions. They stated, “This blatant act of erasure not only distorts the truth of our history but also dishonors the immense contributions of transgender individuals, particularly transgender women of color, who were at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots and the broader fight for LGBTQ+ rights.” Stacy Lentz, CEO of the initiative and co-owner of The Stonewall Inn, expressed concerns about a campaign to “cis-wash” LGBTQ history, effectively denying the existence of transgender individuals in both past and present narratives.
Angelica Christina, a board member of the initiative and a transgender woman, remarked that while the changes were not surprising given the Trump administration's actions against the transgender community, it was particularly jarring to see the Stonewall National Monument targeted. She characterized the Stonewall Inn and the surrounding West Village as longstanding safe havens for the LGBTQ+ community.
Earlier this week, the monument's homepage had included the phrase, “Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ+) person was illegal.” By Thursday, that line had been revised to exclude “transgender” and “queer,” stating, “Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person was illegal.” The National Park Service did not provide a comment on these changes, nor did it address inquiries about the potential implications of Trump’s executive order for the monument.
Timothy Leonard, Northeast program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, asserted that erasing language from webpages does not alter history or recognize the contributions of the transgender community. He emphasized that the National Park Service's role is to safeguard and educate the public about America’s inclusive history. The Stonewall National Monument was designated by President Barack Obama in 2016.
Last year, a visitor center dedicated to the Stonewall narrative opened at the site, funded largely by private donations alongside $450,000 from the park service's charitable arm. Trump's order sought to recognize only male and female sex based on biological characteristics rather than acknowledging the complexity of gender as a spectrum, a viewpoint endorsed by established medical organizations.
In conclusion, the erasure of transgender identity from the Stonewall National Monument's website has sparked significant backlash from advocates and community members, with many emphasizing the importance of including all identities within the rich history of the LGBTQ+ movement.
