Community members protested at Christopher Park on Feb. 14 after the National Park Service removed references to transgender individuals from its online website, representing just the latest example of the Trump administration’s overwhelming quest to erase transgender individuals from American life.
“Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person was illegal,” the National Park Service’s website says, as of the morning of Feb. 14. “The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969 is a milestone in the quest for LGB civil rights and provided momentum for a movement.”
The move, which involved deleting TQ+ from LGBTQ+, appeared to align the National Park Service with President Donald Trump’s blatantly transphobic executive order recognizing only male and female genders according to an individual’s gender assigned at birth.
The Stonewall National Monument is located within Christopher Park and was designated in 2016 by former President Barack Obama as the first federal monument dedicated to the LGBTQ community.
The updates to the National Park Service’s website immediately prompted widespread anger from community members and elected officials, leading to the Christopher Park demonstration.
“I’m not going to allow any government, any organization, any person to take away the joy that I feel as a trans person,” Berne Wagenblast, who is one of the voices of the New York City subway system. Wagenblast delighted the crowd by repeating one of her most-heard lines: “Please stand away from the platform edge.”
Out gay State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who represents the area encompassing the Stonewall Inn, said the decision to remove trans references from the website amounts to “one of the darkest moments in American history.”
Hoylman-Sigal said the Trump administration is seeking to rewrite history and discriminate against an entire population of Americans.
“This decision cannot stand,” Hoylman-Sigal stated, adding: “I pledge to continue to work harder than ever to further enshrine the rights of transgender New Yorkers in state and city law.”
Another out gay lawmaker, Councilmember Erik Bottcher, who also represents the area around the Stonewall Inn, similarly blasted the move.
“Trump is trying to erase the very existence of transgender people,” Bottcher wrote on X. “He’s trying to cleave our community apart and divide us. He’s not going to succeed. Lesbians and gays are not going to abandon our transgender siblings. We are one community.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also criticized the change, describing it as “cruel and petty.”
“Transgender people play a critical role in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights — and New York will never allow their contributions to be erased,” Hochul wrote on X.
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, said, “This move to try to erase transgender people from the Stonewall National Monument is cruel, pathetic, and historically inaccurate. Transgender New Yorkers played a critical role in the events at Stonewall and in the movement for equality that it inspired. The Park Service should reverse themselves immediately.”
Stacy Lentz, a co-owner of the Stonewall Inn, told Gay City News on Feb. 14 that although the move wasn’t necessarily surprising given who occupies the White House, it still hits the community hard.
“It’s painful and it’s unacceptable that they want to erase an entire part of the community,” Lentz said, acknowledging the participation of transgender individuals in the Stonewall Uprising. “To have them come into our house — it’s alarming. This should be alarming to everyone, not just the LGBTQ community.”
Angelica Christina, an out trans board member of the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative, which is the charitable arm of the Stonewall Inn, told Gay City News she is “entirely offended” and “disgusted” by the federal government’s erasure of the trans community.
“What we’re seeing right now is the erasure of LGBTQIA+ history, and American history,” Christina said. “What we’re witnessing right now is an attempted gendercide of trans folks.”
The Office of Mayor Eric Adams, who has developed close ties with President Trump, offered an indirect answer when asked by Gay City News to comment on the National Park Service’s transphobic move.
“We remain steadfast in our commitment to fostering a safe, inclusive, and affirming environment where every person can thrive,” a spokesperson for Adams told Gay City News. “Here in New York City, our policies have not changed at our schools or at our hospitals and we will continue to provide care for all, regardless of race, gender, religion or sexual orientation.”
Mark Segal, a Stonewall veteran who is the founder and publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News, called on community members to remember this moment as the beginning of the second Stonewall Rebellion.
“The spirit of Stonewall means to be visible and fight back against oppression,” Segal said in a written statement. “You cannot erase the history of Stonewall by erasing a letter. You cannot erase trans people by erasing a letter. This petty, vindictive action is an attempt to not only erase trans people from public view, but also the entire LGBT community. Stonewall, including all of us in the LGBT community who fought back that historic night and have continued to fight for 55 years, cannot and will not be erased. We will continue to fight, we will continue to be visible and persevere…”
Lentz, who said the federal government had not communicated anything to her, is calling on members of the public to visit the National Park Service’s website and navigate to a page where folks can voice their concerns.
For now, though, she wants folks to step up and join in.
“I think we’re seeing a lot of complacency, especially a lot of leadership in the Democratic Party,” Lentz said. “Pride started as a protest. We want to make sure our voices are being heard.”
The National Park Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Below are some more photos from the Feb. 14 demonstration at Stonewall:
