The National Park Service removed all references to transgender people on its website about the Stonewall Inn National Monument this week, prompting intense backlash from LGBTQ rights activists.
“Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person was illegal,” the NPS webpage now reads. “The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969 is a milestone in the quest for LGB civil rights and provided momentum for a movement.”
Trans activists like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera played a central role in the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan, New York, which marked a major turning point in the fight for LGBTQ rights. Both women were honored with a monument outside the bar in 2019. The Stonewall Inn and its surrounding area became a national monument in 2016.
An archived version of the NPS website referenced trans and queer people, and used the acronym LGBTQ+ throughout.
In a joint statement on Thursday, the Stonewall Inn and the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative, an LGBTQ rights advocacy nonprofit, called it a “blatant act of erasure” that “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.” Protesters also gathered outside the Stonewall Inn on Friday to rally against the Trump administration and its attacks on trans people.
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has signed multiple executive orders targeting the trans community. An executive order proclaiming that there are only two biological sexes likely prompted the change on the government’s Stonewall Inn webpage. It and other anti-trans directives have impacted agencies across the federal government. On Friday, the U.S. Army announced a ban on trans people joining the military and said it would no longer provide gender-affirming care for service members.
Critical public health information on government websites has also been cleared of references to trans and nonbinary people, with a note at the top of the pages railing against so-called “gender ideology,” a term used to promote the false idea that transgender people are pushing an ideology rather than simply embracing their identity.