New York politicians openly defied the Trump administration Thursday afternoon by planting a Pride flag at the Stonewall National Monument, escalating a clash over federal efforts to strip LGBTQ+ symbols from the birthplace of the gay rights movement.
Rep. Dan Goldman and Rep. Jerry Nadler joined Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal to put up a new rainbow flag on a thin flexible pole inside Christopher Park, days after the National Park Service yanked the LGBTQ banner from the federally-controlled area under guidance from the Trump administration.
Dozens of advocates gathered to watch from the tiny park, with some accusing Donald Trump of trying to erase LGBTQ+ history from a monument that commemorates the 1969 Stonewall uprising.
“Our rights, not just as Americans but as humans on this planet, is to be here and coexist peacefully,” Sam Schulz, 39, told a Post reporter.
“When someone comes in and takes down your flag that is meant to memorialize people who fought for our rights, it’s just a slap in the face,” the Manhattanite added.
A spokesperson from the Department of the Interior said “recent adjustments” to federal flag policy limit which banners can fly on federal flagpoles, allowing only the American flag and a small set of department-authorized flags “with limited exceptions.”
Several rowdy attendees yelled at organizers to burn the American flag that now flies at the monument.
“Take it down and burn it,” they angrily chanted.
After the politicians left, organizers proceeded to place the Pride flag level with the American flag.
The Pride flag had flown continuously at the monument since 2022 and has been described by advocates as both a symbol of queer resistance and an “American symbol.”
“I think it’s purposeful noise. It’s a signal to the queer community and the queer allies that we don’t belong here,” Michael Chamberlain told The Post.
The 52-year-old grew up in the West Village.
“To erase us by taking the flag down is a sign that visibility is a possibility, and we’re here to obviously show that, with or without the flag, the queer community won’t be erased,” Chamberlain said.
The City Council passed a resolution, earlier Thursday, denouncing the federal removal and calling on Congress to “respect the true history and significance” of national park sites, specifically citing the Stonewall National Monument and its role in LGBTQ+ rights.
From the floor of City Hall, the clash took an unusually bitter turn with co-chair of the City Council’s LGBTQIA+ caucus Chi Ossé, who introduced the resolution, unleashing a tirade about the president’s character and use of LGBTQ issues in politics.
“There’s a pedophile of the United States who’s sitting in the White House,” Ossé fumed. “Donald Trump is potentially doing this to distract from the fact that he is in the Epstein files. He’s trying to rile us all up.”
“He’s attacking queer people, trans people, minorities that exist within our society, to try to distract us from the fact that there are billionaires and pedophiles who are being held unaccountable within this country,” he said.
Queens Republican Councilmember Vicki Paladino was incensed over Ossé’s claims.
“It’s got nothing to do with Donald Trump. It’s got nothing to do with the Epstein files. It’s got to do with a whole lot more than that,” said Paladino, who did not vote in favor of the resolution.
“To call our sitting president a pedophile is absolutely ludicrous and way out of line. You can look at the Epstein files and find a whole lot of names besides Trump,” Paladino snapped.
“They’re pedophiles too,” Ossé shot back causing Majority Leader Shaun Abreu to bang his gavel.
“I could tweet all I want or say whatever I want about former President Bill Clinton and his lovely wife, but I don’t do that,” Paladino said of the Clintons whose names also appear in the files. “For a colleague in council to bring up the president in this disgusting way isn’t necessary.”
Speaker Julie Menin sent a letter to the National Parks Service this week demanding the return of the flag.
“We are going to keep fighting until the flag is returned,” she vowed from the floor Thursday. “The pride flag has long symbolized struggle, resilience and community and flying it sends a message to our city, our country and the world that LGBTQ history is American history.”
But there may not be much local politicians can do. New York City ceded control of the small Christopher Park parcel to the federal government when the site was designated a national monument by President Obama in 2016.
But Chamberlain was not deterred.
“We and our allies will keep showing up,” he said.
