The Trump Administration’s Takedown of a Pride Flag at Stonewall is One Small Beat of Its LGBTQ Erasure
Spencer Macnaughton | Uncloseted Media Weekly Newsletter
This week, the Trump administration removed a large Pride flag at the Stonewall National Monument, which sits adjacent to The Stonewall Inn—the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement.
“Under government-wide guidance … only the U.S. flag and other congressionally or departmentally authorized flags are flown on NPS-managed flagpoles, with limited exceptions,” a spokesperson for the National Park Service told Gay City News. “Any changes to flag displays are made to ensure consistency with that guidance.”
The news went viral and sparked outrage both online and in person: Bravo TV host and executive producer Andy Cohen wrote in the comments of an Uncloseted Media post: “Put [the flag] back every day.” And on Tuesday, a rally in front of the monument drew over 100 protesters.
“To think you can go to Stonewall and just take down the Pride flag—that is telling of the time we are living in,” Stacy Lentz, co-owner of the bar and co-founder of the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative, told The New York Times. “The flag is not just an abstract symbol; it tells LGBTQ people, especially younger ones, that their history will not be sidelined.”
The Trump administration’s erasure of LGBTQ history has been aggressive and fast. Here are just a few of the moves he’s made in his first year in office:
Jan. 21, 2025: Nearly all LGBTQ and HIV-focused content and resources are deleted from the White House’s website.
Feb. 3, 2025: Mentions of LGBTQ people are erased or minimized across federal government websites. The LGBTQ acronym is morphed to exclude transgender people on the State Department’s “Resources for LGB Prospective Adoptive Parents” page and the “Social Security for LGBQ People” page. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also removes mentions of trans people from their Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which asks about LGBTQ-related bullying.
June 3, 2025: During the first week of Pride Month, the Department of Defense removes LGBTQ icon Harvey Milk’s name from a U.S. naval vessel and plans to rename it.
July 10, 2025: Mentions of bisexuality are removed from parts of the National Park Service’s website on the Stonewall National Monument, though some would later be restored. This comes five months after mentions of trans people were erased.
Aug. 21, 2025: The White House publishes a list of 20 Smithsonian exhibits deemed objectionable, including many that highlight LGBTQ communities. Targeted works include the American History Museum’s LGBTQ+ exhibit that explores queer and disabled people.
Sept. 20, 2025: The CDC removes or restricts webpages related to LGBTQ health and equity. Deleted pages include “About Shigella Among Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex With Men” and “STI Information for Transgender and Gender Diverse Persons.”
Oct. 1, 2025: FBI Director Kash Patel fires a trainee for displaying a Pride flag on his desk, labeling it an improper “political” message.
It’s head spinning to think about all that’s been lost in the first year of Trump 2.0. But it shouldn’t be surprising. Trump is surrounded with queerphobic people: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson believes that “any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography or any attempt to change one’s sex, or disagreement with one’s biological sex, is sinful.” And Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth served as publisher for a magazine where editors said that “the movement to legitimize the homosexual lifestyle and homosexual marriages … must be vigorously opposed.”
As I reflect on all of this, my takeaway is that we need to see the U.S. government under Trump for what it is: an anti-LGBTQ hate group. Given their actions, we should see them as no different from groups like the MassResistance or Alliance Defending Freedom, organizations that have made fighting against LGBTQ rights a core part of their missions.
It feels extreme to suggest this simply because it’s the U.S. government we’re talking about. But when I assess the facts and interrogate my own bias, reporting that the Trump administration is a homophobic and transphobic institution is—at this point—a reflection of an objective truth.
Mamdani, Schumer & NYC Council demand National Park Service return Pride flag to Stonewall National Monument (The Advocate)
“New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.
Epstein Backed ‘Billionaires’ Dinner’ Network of Prominent Anti-Trans Figures (Trans News Network)
Lawrence Krauss, Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker and other anti-trans influencers personally benefited from a right-wing academic social group backed by infamous human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, sometimes meeting at his island.
Orlando Gay Days ‘paused’ this year as sponsors bailed, group says (Orlando Sentinel)
Organizers insist the decision is only a pause for 2026 and not the end of Gay Days.
NC State Pride Center official no longer employed after new undercover video (Raleigh News & Observer)
Another unsuspecting subject of an activist group’s undercover videos at UNC System schools is now out of a job. This time, the group targeted NC State University’s LGBTQ Pride Center.
Amber Glenn shocked by ‘outlandish backlash’ to comments about LGBTQ community (USA Today)
The first-time Olympian figure skater revealed her feelings about the response to her comments after Team USA won team event gold on Sunday, Feb. 8.
Over the next week, be on the lookout for new Uncloseted reporting:
🆕 SATURDAY: Since the assassination of Turning Point USA Co-Founder Charlie Kirk, there’s been an increase in activity by campus conservative groups. Hope Pisoni looks into one of those groups, Young Americans for Freedom, and uncovers the impact they’re having on LGBTQ students.
🆕 TUESDAY: The Trump administration has taken numerous steps to portray and target trans Americans as domestic terror threats. Pisoni digs into what this crackdown looks like, and speaks with trans people and their loved ones and experts from across the country to find out how it’s impacting them mentally and emotionally.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to email me with questions, complaints and story ideas!
Spencer Macnaughton, Editor-In-Chief — spencer@unclosetedmedia.com
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What do we stand for that scares them so much? That we are "woke"? That we fought and won against tyrants like his kind? That we are smarter than all of them together?