Outside Stonewall, Trans People Won’t Be Erased

“We know what Stonewall was. And we're here to protect that history."

Hundreds of LGBTQ+ New Yorkers and their allies gathered outside the Stonewall Inn on Friday to manifest physically what the Trump administration has sought to erase in government records: that transgender and queer people have demonstrated, protested, and occasionally fought in the streets throughout American history for their civil and human rights.

On Thursday night, the National Parks Service, acting on orders from the White House, erased any mention of “transgender” and “queer” people from the official website for the Stonewall National Monument.

It was a brazen act of historical revisionism from the administration. On June 28, 1969, transgender and queer New Yorkers fought back against discriminatory police raids in what are now known as the Stonewall Riots, galvanizing the modern LGBTQ+ liberation movement and marking a historic response to repressive state violence and societal marginalization. Among other things, the riots — which are sometimes referred to as an uprising or rebellion — are considered a precursor to modern-day Pride parades across the world.

Then-President Barack Obama officially designated the Stonewall Inn and surrounding areas as the “Stonewall National Monument” in 2016. But now, instead of the federal government marking the rebellion as “a milestone in the quest for LGBTQ+ civil rights,” the government website for the Stonewall National Monument acknowledges only the “LGB.”

On Friday, transgender and queer New Yorkers and their allies said the change — part of a wave of policies from the new administration targeting transgender people — would not stand.