Transgender references removed from Stonewall National Monument website

(NEW YORK) — The National Park Service eliminated references to transgender people from its Stonewall National Monument website on Thursday, which now only refers to those who are lesbian, gay and bisexual.

What used to be listed as LGBTQ+, has been changed to LGB.

“Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person was illegal. The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969, is a milestone in the quest for LGB civil rights and provided momentum for a movement,” the website now says.

The Stonewall Inn in New York City’s Greenwich Village became a national monument in 2016 under former President Barack Obama, creating the country’s first national park site dedicated to LGBTQ+ history.

The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969, began in response to a routine police raid on a gay bar, according to the Library of Congress. The conflict spanned multiple nights and drew national attention as bargoers resisted the police.

The Stonewall Inn and the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative told ABC News that it was thanks to the leadership of transgender women who “stood up and stood out and refused to be put into a corner” that the modern LGBTQ equality movement exists.

“In this fight, in this movement, it was also trans people, especially trans women of color, like Marsha P Johnson, Sylvia, Rivera, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, black and brown trans women that stood at the forefront of this movement,” said Angelica Christina, the Board Director of the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative, in an interview with ABC News. “We would not have pride as we know it today without trans people, without trans women.”

Though LGBTQ+ rights activism existed in various pockets prior to 1969, the incident at Stonewall galvanized and mobilized the community toward increased organizing, experts said. NYPD officials have since apologized for past anti-LGBTQ+ practices and the raid of Stonewall.

“… to come and do this at the Stonewall National Monument and try to erase LGBTQ history, which is American history, is just deplorable and something that we cannot see happen,” co-owner of the Stonewall Inn, Stacy Lentz, told ABC News.

For transgender residents, like Christina, the Stonewall Inn has long been a safe haven.

“The Stonewall bar, which for me, as a native New Yorker, that was one of the first queer, LGBT safe spaces that I turned to in my early 20s,” Christina told ABC News. “It was a space that was welcoming for especially a trans woman like myself, a space that I could exist comfortably and safely and that I knew that I could turn to. And there are so many spaces in especially in New York City, unfortunately, are not safe for trans people.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul took to X on Thursday to condemn the change, calling it “cruel and petty.”

“Transgender people play a critical role in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights — and New York will never allow their contributions to be erased,” Hochul said.

The monument’s organizers promised to fight for transgender representation to be restored on the website, saying, that the group “Stands unwaveringly in solidarity with the transgender community and all who fight for full equality, and we will not rest until this grave injustice is corrected.”

The Park Service’s public affairs department, according to the New York Times, said “the agency had taken the actions to carry out an executive order signed by President Trump on his first day in office that was described as ‘restoring biological truth to the federal government’ and a second order signed by the acting secretary of the interior last month.”

Several other references to the transgender community remain on the website, including the founding document for the Stonewall National Monument, historical pages on Rivera and Johnson, and other references to LGBTQ history.

During his first day in the White House, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring that there are only “two sexes, male and female,” with the effects of that order being seen from passports to the U.S. military.

“The decision to change ‘LGBTQ’ to ‘LGB’ on the Stonewall National Monument’s National Parks page is yet another example of the Trump administration’s blatant attempts to discriminate against and erase the legacies of transgender and queer Americans,” the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) said in a statement on Thursday.

“You can try to erase our history, but we will never forget those who came before us and we will continue to fight for all those who will come after us,” the GLAAD statement added.

The National Parks Conservation Association — an independent, nonpartisan membership organization dedicated to national park advocacy — released a statement on the decision Thursday.

“Erasing letters or webpages does not change the history or the contributions of our transgender community members at Stonewall or anywhere else,” program manager Timothy Leonard said. “Stonewall inspires and our parks must continue to include diverse stories that welcome and represent the people that shaped our nation.”

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