More than 1,000 people rallied in solidarity in the streets surrounding Christopher Park in Greenwich Village on Thursday, as community members re-raised the rainbow Pride flag Donald Trump ordered removed.
From The Advocate:
The gathering followed days of condemnation from city, state, and federal leaders who denounced the removal, which the National Park Service said on Tuesday was done to comply with longstanding federal flag policy, as an attempt to erase LGBTQ+ history from the nation’s capital for queer memory.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the removal “deeply outrageous” and said that “no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history.”
He added that the city has a “duty not just to honor this legacy, but to live up to it” and vowed to continue fighting for LGBTQ+ dignity and protection.
By late afternoon, the park was packed. People lined its perimeter and spilled onto nearby streets and sidewalks, some bearing rainbow and transgender pride flags and handmade signs.
One sign read, “Honey, Stonewall was the warning.” Chants rippled through the crowd like a rising tide of frustration and resolve.
Jay W. Walker, a longtime local activist, joined the two people struggling with the flags and helped secure the Pride flag to the same pole as the American flag. Both flags were left flying side by side in a vigorous wind, as onlookers cheered.
Read more here.
In related news, the New York City Council advanced a resolution on Wednesday urging Congress to protect LGBTQ history at Stonewall National Monument after the Trump administration ordered Pride flags to be removed from the site.
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