1 of 4 | People on Friday hold signs and flags to protest at the Stonewall National Monument in New York against the removal of the mention of transgender and queer people from the monument’s official government website. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
Feb. 14 (UPI) — The National Park Service has removed references to transgender people and “queer” from the website of the Stonewall National Monument, which designates where the gay rights movement began 55 years ago.
What used to be listed as LGBTQ+, has been changed to LGB for lesbian, gay and bisexual on the website.
Protesters gathered at the monument Friday after the references were removed Thursday.
“We cannot be erased by removing words from a website,” Samy Nemir Olivares, a protester who identifies as nonbinary, told CBS News at the protest. “It’s saying that trans and nonbinary and queer people do not exist at all.”
The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969, began after a routine police raid on a gay bar, according to the Library of Congress. The conflict, which lasted spanned multiple nights, drew national attention as bargoers resisted the police.
“Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person was illegal. The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969, is a milestone in the quest for LGB civil rights and provided momentum for a movement,” the website now says.
In 2016, he Stonewall Inn in New York City’s Greenwich Village became a national monument. Former President Barack Obama create the country’s first national park site dedicated to LGBTQ+ history.
Leadership of transgender women “stood up and stood out and refused to be put into a corner, an official with the Stonewall Inn and the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative told ABC News.
“In this fight, in this movement, it was also trans people, especially trans women of color, like Marsha P Johnson, Sylvia, Rivera, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, black and brown trans women that stood at the forefront of this movement,” said Angelica Christina, the board director of the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative. “We would not have pride as we know it today without trans people, without trans women.”
Stacy Lentz, co-owner of the Stonewall Inn and the chief executive of the nonprofit Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative wrote in an Instagram post announcing the protest:
“There is no Pride without Trans folks leading that fight! Trying to erase them from the Birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement will not happen! We need to show up and speak out for our trans and nonbinary siblings who are under attack.”
The monument’s organizers will seek to have the information restored on the website, saying that the group “stands unwaveringly in solidarity with the transgender community and all who fight for full equality, and we will not rest until this grave injustice is corrected.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on X called the change “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 said.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office on Jan. 20 identifying the only sexes as male and female.
The Park Service, according to The New York Times, said “the agency had taken the actions to carry out an executive order signed by President Trump on his first day in office that was described as ‘restoring biological truth to the federal government’ and a second order signed by the acting secretary of the interior last month.”
Some references to the transgender community remain on the website, including the founding document for the Stonewall National Monument, historical pages on Rivera and Johnson, and other references to LGBTQ history.
“Erasing letters or webpages does not change the history or the contributions of our transgender community members at Stonewall or anywhere else,” National Parks Conservation Association program manager Timothy Leonard said.
“Stonewall inspires and our parks must continue to include diverse stories that welcome and represent the people that shaped our nation.”
“Erasing letters or webpages does not change the history or the contributions of our transgender community members at Stonewall or anywhere else. History was made here and civil rights were earned because of Stonewall.” – NPCA’s Timothy Leonard https://t.co/kgiSn2lqkt— National Parks Conservation Association (@NPCA) February 14, 2025
A transgender person is someone whose gender identity differs from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.
Some 1.6 million people in the United States identify as transgender, which is about 0.6% of the population 13 and older, according to the Williams Institute. About 25% of transgender people report having undergone some form of gender-affirming surgery.
