Thousands of people gathered around near the Stonewall Monument in New York City’s Christopher Park this afternoon to protest the National Park Service (NPS) removing all mentions of transgender and queer people from the webpage for the monument commemorating the 1969 Stonewall Riots.
The NPS did this to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order prohibiting any official recognition of transgender people within U.S. departments, agencies and workforces.
Many social media commenters were baffled when the NPS Service removed all mention of the initialism LGBTQ+ and replaced it with LGB, and removed all references to the transgender figures like Zazu Nova who is now being described on the website simply as a “black woman” instead of her previous designation as a “black transgender woman.”
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The outrage from this action sparked a demonstration near the memorial scheduled for February 14 at 12 p.m. local time.
An estimated 1,000 protestors assembled at the Stonewall Monument at around noon with the crowd continuing to grow, according to HuffPost reporter Matt Shuham.
There’s around 1,000 people here and growing. Hard to hear speakers without amplification, but crowd is very enthusiastic. Alt: pictures show crowd at protest in Christopher Park, where trans pride flag is still flying
— Matt Shuham (@mattshuham.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 11:13 AM
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“Stand up fight back!” Photos of protesters at Christopher Park:
— Matt Shuham (@mattshuham.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 11:20 AM
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Numerous social media accounts posted photos and videos highlighting the protest’s scale.
New Yorkers flooded the Stonewall Monument to protest the erasure of Trans people. We will not allow this regime to erase OUR communities and OUR history. “The rage and resolve here should be bottled and administered directly into our veins.” @raushenbush.bsky.social #resist
— Rise and Resist (@riseandresist.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 12:55 PM
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Protest at the Stonewall monument. Protect trans kids
— Alex Jaffe “Alex Jaffe” Alex Jaffe (@alexjaffe.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 12:20 PM
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#love #joy #defiance #stonewall #history #lgbTQIA #nyc #usa #protest #checkinonyourfriends #liberation
— Sam Schultz
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