Trump is trying to remove trans people from Stonewall's legacy. That's impossible. | Opinion
In their crusade against 'transgender insanity,' the Trump administration is now going so far as to rewrite history. Future tourists who visit Stonewall will see a version that is far from the truth.
I stood outside the Christopher Street subway entrance in New York City last week and noted my surroundings: a Starbucks, a Chase Bank and a set of bars. A triangular strip of fenced grass lined with park benches was across the street from where I stood. A defaced sign on that entrance now read, “Stonewall National TRANSGENDER Monument.”
The graffiti was left over from Valentine’s Day, the day after the National Park Service removed the words “transgender” and “queer” from the Stonewall National Monument website.
“Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person was illegal,” the monument’s website now reads, using an acronym often associated with the trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) movement. “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 change is the latest in the Trump administration’s full-out attack on the transgender community. It has also included blocking gender-affirming care for people under 19, barring trans women from competing in women’s sports, banning trans people from serving in the military and declaring that the United States would only recognize two genders, male and female.
In their crusade against "transgender insanity," the Trump administration is now going so far as to rewrite history. Future tourists who visit Stonewall will see a different version of the monument that I saw last week: a whitewashed version of what really happened, a version that is far from the truth. And while the LGBTQ+ community is responding with protest and resilience, there’s an ever-present dread about what’s to come.
Trump and Republicans want to erase the Stonewall Uprising
The Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center, which opened in 2024, does not agree with the Trump administration’s decision.
In the window was a fan that read “trans and proud” next to a statement specifying that the nonprofit that runs the space is separate from the National Park Service.
“Our space is inextricably linked with and honors the brave pioneers, especially trans and gender-nonconforming individuals, who led the Stonewall Rebellion,” the statement reads.
So, what is it that the Trump administration wants us to forget and Republicans are so afraid of?
The Stonewall Rebellion, sometimes called the Stonewall Uprising or the Stonewall riots, was a multiday revolt in 1969 that started with a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar and safe place for gender-nonconforming people. Trans women played a vital role in that rebellion and would become icons of the pride movement.
LGBTQ people are still under attack. Stonewall reminded me of how important our stories are.
Inside the visitor center was a completely open room sectioned off by activity. There was a film playing in the back with rows of chairs, a wall of information and photos, and an information desk/gift shop. There was a jukebox that is the same model as the one in the original bar. Beside the help desk is a Parsons art installation featuring a set of blank notebooks where visitors can tell their stories.
I opened the one that asked, “When did you know?”
I flipped through to read other stories – some short and to the point, some with words of encouragement, and none over a page long. Some people had replied to others, indicated by the various marker shades. A lot of people spoke about being gay, but a surprising number were talking about when the writer knew they were trans.
Directly across from the books was “The Stories of Stonewall,” detailing the history of the bar itself, Greenwich Village and the uprising. Toward the end was a section dedicated to the founders of Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR), trans activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera.
A famous quote by Johnson, who was present at Stonewall, adorns the wall: “No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.”
It's alarming that pride and liberation are still under attack 56 years later.
Republicans want to erase people like me. We won't let that happen.
I walked out of the visitors center and around the park, looking at the display that is almost certain to change in the next few months. There's a card addressed to "the darling trans community" and a flower stuck behind a photo of Johnson. When I scan the QR code in the top left corner, it leads me to the trans-exclusionary version of the NPS website.
There were also signs that the Trump administration had not yet made its way to Christopher Park – a trans pride flag was still whipping around in the breeze, surrounded by smaller progress pride flags. None of the signs have been changed out that include the LGBTQ acronym.
Inside the park are a pair of statues depicting two same-sex couples, cast in bronze and painted white. Someone had placed pink and blue flower bouquets in the arms of the lesbian couple. I looked at the women and the wilted flowers for a minute. Transgender people are the reason that the Stonewall Uprising happened, the reason I am afforded rights as a queer woman today. Republicans would prefer if I forgot that, but then again, it sometimes seems like they'd prefer if all LGBTQ+ people disappeared.
I finished my afternoon at the Stonewall Inn, the bar’s neon red sign inviting me in from the cold of the park. I walked into the sound of Cardi B’s “I Like It,” greeted by the bar’s dark wood paneling and twinkling multicolored fairy lights. A set of televisions displayed a crackling fire. Things were also business as usual: There was still a giant trans flag in the back of the room.
The bar isn’t the original; it was an assortment of things in the years following the uprising before opening as a gay bar called New Jimmy’s in 1990. It was renamed after the owner’s death from complications of of HIV/AIDS.
I sat at the bar and thought about what I'd seen. My freedom to sit at this bar, or at any gay bar in New York, was won because of the trans people who rose up at Stonewall. We, as other members of the LGBTQ+ community, must find a way to support our trans brothers and sisters. We can't let them be erased from our history. We must remember the truth of what happened at Stonewall, and keep its spirit in mind as we continue to protest against the Trump administration.
Follow Paste BN columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter: @sara__pequeno