Changes were made on Thursday to the National Park Service website for the Stonewall National Monument, located in New York, where references to transgender individuals were eliminated. This site honors the historic 1969 riots that played a significant role in the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights.
The alterations were prompted by an executive order signed by former President Donald Trump during his first day in office, which instructed the government to classify sex strictly as male or female.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, expressed her disapproval of these changes on social media, labeling them as “cruel and petty.” She emphasized the essential role of transgender individuals in the quest for LGBTQ+ equality and asserted that New York will not permit the erasure of their contributions.
The Stonewall National Monument is situated in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, opposite the renowned Stonewall Inn. This establishment became a focal point for the gay rights movement after patrons, including gay and transgender individuals, fought back during a police raid on June 28, 1969. While the park service website still contains details about the riots and includes photographs of prominent transgender activists, terms such as “transgender” and “queer” have been excised from the text.
Additionally, references to the LGBTQ acronym were altered, with “T” and “Q” being replaced by phrases highlighting the “LGB rights movement” or “LGB civil rights.” These changes have sparked indignation among representatives of the Stonewall Inn and the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative, a nonprofit group linked to the historic venue.
Organizers from these organizations issued a statement condemning the alterations, stating, “This blatant act of erasure not only distorts the truth of our history, but it also dishonors the immense contributions of transgender individuals — especially transgender women of color — who were at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots and the broader fight for LGBTQ+ rights.”
Stacy Lentz, CEO of The Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative and co-owner of the Stonewall Inn, expressed concern that these changes seem to aim at “cis-washing” LGBTQ history, effectively implying that transgender people either did not exist or do not belong in the historical narrative.
Angelica Christina, a board member of the initiative and a transgender woman, remarked that while these changes were anticipated given the Trump administration’s executive orders targeting the transgender community, it is particularly unsettling to see the Stonewall National Monument being targeted, given its historic significance as a refuge for the LGBTQ+ community.
In prior announcements, the national monument’s homepage stated that “Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ+) person was illegal.” Following the recent revisions, the wording has changed to “Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person was illegal.”
The National Park Service did not respond to inquiries regarding these modifications, nor did it address questions about the potential impacts of Trump’s executive order on the monument. Timothy Leonard, the Northeast program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, expressed that the deletion of letters or webpages does not alter history or diminish the contributions of the transgender community at Stonewall or in broader historical contexts.
Leonard emphasized, “The National Park Service exists not only to protect and preserve our most cherished places but also to educate its millions of annual visitors about the inclusive, full history of America.” The Stonewall National Monument was designated by former President Barack Obama in 2016, and a visitor center operated by the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Pride Live opened at the site last year, funded mainly through private donations.
Trump’s executive order defined federal recognition of gender strictly as male or female based on biological factors, which is promoted as a measure for protecting women against what has been termed “gender extremism.” While some conservative organizations have endorsed this directive, many experts, including those from the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association, argue that gender should be viewed as a spectrum rather than a binary framework limited to just two categories.
