For an eighth straight year, community members gathered at the Stonewall National Monument at Christopher Park on June 1 to install Rainbow Flags for Pride Month.
Steven Love Menendez, who is the caretaker of the flags, again led this year’s ceremonial flag-raising event alongside a crew of volunteer helpers, including activists Ann Northrop and Jay W. Walker. Park officials were also on hand.
The advocates installed one of the flags on the 50-foot nautical pole on the corner of Christopher St. and Grove St., according to Menendez. The flag, he said, is an 11-stripe Rainbow Flag that the New York City Department of Parks has sought for three years. Menendez said he had the flag custom-made in San Francisco for the Pride Month display in New York.
Among other flags now up at the park include a new Peace and Love flag display conceived by Menendez, who said he designed those flags in accordance with the Rainbow Flag that was originally created by the late Gilbert Baker. Menendez gained permission from the federal government to install those flags, he said.
Menendez long sought to convince the federal government to allow a Rainbow Flag to fly on federal property at the park. The issue emerged in 2017 when a plan to dedicate a Rainbow Flag at the Stonewall National Monument was scrapped by the Trump administration, which argued that the flagpole was actually on city property instead of federal land. Menendez and activist Michael Petrelis subsequently mounted pressure on the federal government, and eventually the Biden administration allowed — for the first time — a Rainbow Flag to go up on federal land at the park.
This year’s flag-raising ceremony came less than three months after a bipartisan legislative package indirectly barred Rainbow Flags from flying on US embassies by stipulating that the only flags allowed on State Department land are the US flag, POW/MIA flag, a state flag, an Indian Tribal government flag, a Hostage and Wrongful Detainee flag, or a flag of a US agency or the flag of other countries.
“I feel the Rainbow Flag is a powerful symbol that represents both hope and the continued battle against marginalized and oppressed peoples,” Menendez told Gay City News in a written statement. “It saddens me that the flag has been targeted by conservative politicians in bills to try and have it removed from governmental spaces including National Parks. They understand it is a powerful and meaningful symbol to our community and wish to try and erase it from public view. The flag display for Pride month has become a global symbol of the movement and has appeared in endless news reporting. Multiple tours pass through the park everyday to learn the history of the riots and capture images of the flags at the park.”
