Signaling the beginning of Pride Month, large Rainbow Flags were hoisted above Christopher Park at the Stonewall National Monument on June 1, but the flag flying over land owned by the federal government came with an asterisk, of sorts.
Steven Love Menendez, a caretaker of Rainbow Flags in the park, stood with advocates — including longtime LGBTQ activist Randy Wicker — in leading two flag-raising ceremonies at the park, one on city land and the other on federal land. The flag perched on city land features a large Rainbow Flag with black and brown stripes and colors stemming from the Trans Flag, but Menendez said he was told that the flagpole sitting on federal land could only have a regular Rainbow Flag.
That stipulation represented a departure from recent years when folks raised different versions of the Rainbow Flag — including ones with the Trans Flag and the Progress Pride Flag — at the Stonewall National Monument.
This year’s ceremony marked the ninth annual flag-raising event and the first to take place under the second term of President Donald Trump, who angered many in the community during his first term when his administration nixed a plan to dedicate a Rainbow Flag at the monument, arguing that the flagpole was actually on city property rather than federal land.
Menendez and fellow activist Michael Petrelis subsequently pressured the federal government, eventually prompting the Biden administration to allow a Rainbow Flag to go up on federal land at the park. Now, though, the National Park Service is back under the control of the Trump administration, which has aggressively targeted the rights of transgender individuals.
Nonetheless, advocates gathered in the park while longtime LGBTQ activist Randy Wicker raised the flag alongside Menendez, drawing cheers from onlookers.
“We raise these flags at the park each year on June 1 to honor all those who fought for our rights, to celebrate our victories, and to give hope to those who still struggle,” Menendez told Gay City News. “The Stonewall Monument represents acceptance, love, Pride, and empowerment in a world still filled with too much hate and rejection.”
The National Park Service did not immediately respond to a question about which flags were allowed on federal land at the park. The National Park Service came under fire earlier this year when the agency scrubbed references to transgender individuals from its website, including removing the letters T and Q from LGBTQ, in response to the president’s executive order recognizing only male and female genders in accordance with an individual’s gender assigned at birth.
Just weeks later, Gay City News reported that the National Park Service removed part of a web page about the former New York City home of the late out gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, though it was later restored.
City Councilmember Erik Bottcher, who joined the separate flag-raising on city land, praised the work of Menendez and underscored the importance of commemorating Pride.
“When folks ask me, especially straight folks, what’s the deal with Pride Month, there are people who want us to be ashamed of who we are, they want us to feel shame about who we are,” Bottcher said. “The opposite of shame is Pride. We are rejecting shame and showing Pride in who we were born as; we are showing Pride in our community… And there are poeple who would like to see gays and lesbians turn against trans people and leave them behind, because we’ve made so much progress.”
He added: “We’re good, we are not going to do that. We are one community, one people united in our fight for full equality, and we will not stop fighting until everyone in our community and all people everywhere have full equality…”
