Park Service Removes “T” From Stonewall Monument Website

This is some pretty petty bullshit. The National Park Service (NPS) today removed references to transgender and queer people on the webpage for the Stonewall National Monument, shortening the LGBTQ+ acronym to LGB, standing for lesbian, gay and bisexual. The monument commemorates the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City, which is often seen as the beginning of the U.S. gay rights movement. President Obama designated the national monument in June 2016. Until this morning, the NPS webpage for the Stonewall National Monument shared that the riots were a “milestone in the quest for LGBTQ+ civil rights,” and included what each letter stands for (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer). As of this morning, the “T” and the word “transgender” are gone.

‼️ The National Park Service has REMOVED mentions of transgender people being involved with Stonewall. Not only did the remove the world “Transgender” but changed “LGBTQ+” to “LGBQ+”.

The federal government is attempting to erase us and take away our history. This pride, we riot. [image or embed] — Allison Chapman (@alli.gay) February 13, 2025 at 1:01 PM

But wait – there’s more!

Just a short time after that change, the site was again updated to remove the “Q+” from the acronym leaving just “LGB.” You can see the original text on an archived version of the site here. The sad, ugly irony here is that it was trans women and gender-nonconforming queer people who actually led the Stonewall riots in 1968. Representatives for The Stonewall Inn told the LGBTQ news outlet them that they were “outraged and appalled” by the changes to the National Monument page. The erasure, they added, “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.” Clearly this is all due to Donald Trump’s Day One anti-transgender executive order which attempts to redefine gender at the federal level and erase recognition of trans people in government communications. The State Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) websites have also been scrubbed of the word “transgender” and the LGBTQ+ acronym replaced with “LGB.”

UPDATE: The National Park Service have now removed “queer” and the “Q+” from the web page for stonewall, along with any mentions of transgender people.

[image or embed] — Allison Chapman (@alli.gay) February 13, 2025 at 1:57 PM