Pride flag will fly at Stonewall in unexpected Trump administration reversal

Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News on Apr 13, 2026

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NEW YORK — In an unexpected reversal, lawyers for the Trump administration on Monday said the federal government would fly the rainbow Pride flag at the Stonewall National Monument in Greenwich Village.

The government’s decision was included in a proposed settlement to voluntarily dismiss a Manhattan federal court lawsuit brought by the Gilbert Baker Foundation, whose namesake created the flag that symbolized LGBTQ equality, and various advocacy organizations, including Village Preservation and Equality New York.

The groups filed the suit against Trump’s Interior Department and National Park Service in February after the flag was taken down from the site widely recognized as the cradle of the gay liberation movement, alleging the move was part and parcel of an effort to erase LGBTQ history.

The proposed resolution, which a judge must sign off on, says the Pride flag will fly high at Stonewall “save for maintenance and other practical purposes,” court filings show. The National Park Service has agreed to hang three flags of equal dimensions — the American flag, the National Park Service flag, and the Pride flag — within seven days.

A spokesman for the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, which is defending the government in the case, declined to comment. Attorneys for the civil rights groups that brought the lawsuit could not immediately be reached.

The Trump administration on Feb. 8 removed the rainbow flag from Stonewall, where a 1969, uprising sparked by a police raid on an underground gay bar, catalyzed the gay rights movement and led to the first march for gay equality in the U.S. in 1970.

The government had claimed the flag violated Department of Interior policies mandating that only the agency’s flag, the American flag and the POW/MIA flag could be flown in public spaces controlled by the National Park Service.

The move drew fierce backlash and prompted New Yorkers to turn out in the hundreds to hoist an unofficial Pride flag back up the pole. The flag removal followed similar efforts by the Trump administration to wipe both the historical record and the present day of any acknowledgment of LGBTQ Americans and otherwise roll back diversity initiatives promoted by Democrats.

Since Trump’s return to office, National Park Service websites documenting LGBTQ history have been deleted, a Justice Department employee lost his job for displaying a Pride flag and the federal government banned the inclusion of gender pronouns in email signatures.

President Barack Obama designated Stonewall a national monument in 2016, and President Joe Biden’s National Park Service installed the Pride flag beside Old Glory at the historic site in 2022.

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