NEW YORK — Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Stonewall National Monument on Friday amid an attempted purge of transgender history by the Trump administration.
The demonstration came in response to the National Parks Service removing mentions of transgender people from its page on the Stonewall monument in accordance with Trump's broader crackdown on the trans community. A day-one executive order directed the federal government to "recognize two sexes, male and female," which it asserted are "not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality."
The result is a false history, cleansed of its politically inconvenient actors.
“The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969 is a milestone in the quest for LGB civil rights and provided momentum for a movement,” the site read on Thursday after the letters for "transgender" and "queer" were removed.
Demonstrators emphasized the explicitly trans history of the landmark, commemorating the riots led by transgender activists including Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, who revolted against police amid an attempted raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar.
“Stonewall would not be Stonewall without the T,” trans demonstrator Chloe Elentari told Salon.
“National Park Service: You can’t spell history without a T,” one sign read. Another demonstrator wrote the word “transgender” on a sign noting the monument.
Others questioned the purpose of recognizing the monument at all if trans identities are scrubbed from its history.
“You're like erasing the meaning of this. You're erasing the origin of this,” Kalen, who preferred not to share their last name, told Salon. “The Stonewall riots were led by transgender women of color.”
A 38-year-old nonbinary Brooklyn resident who rode in for the demonstration, Kalen said that the National Park Service’s decision was part of a broader push to “systematically erase trans people.”
For trans folk, Stonewall is a sacred place. Michael Venturiello, founder of Christopher Street Tours, an LGBTQ+ history walking tour in New York, told Salon in a phone interview that tour participants strongly connect with the trans history of Stonewall.
“The thing about queer history and trans history, is that it’s life-saving in a way,” Venturiello told Salon. “When we see ourselves represented in history, that is also life-saving and really empowering, to say, well, trans folks have done this. They’ve stood up to oppressive governments before and paved the way for rights that we have today.”
Venturiello argued that LGBTQ+ history is “still being shaped.” Stonewall’s monument status is less than a decade old.
Stonewall became a National Monument in 2016 after President Barack Obama proclaimed it the “first national monument to tell the story of the struggle for LGBT rights.” Former President Joe Biden became the first sitting president to visit the monument, speaking there last summer and acknowledging the “trans women of color” who advanced queer rights.
“They’re essentially re-writing history, or trying to,” Venturiello said. “But the reality is, Stonewall will continue to be a queer space and a haven for a lot of people, and trans folks will continue to exist.”
Protestors rallied against the broader assault on trans Americans during the rally, too, deriding NYU Langone and other local hospitals for ceasing gender-affirming care programs and the Trump administration for assaults on trans athletes via an executive order earlier this month.
“They're gonna go after the T first and then they're coming after the LGB,” Elentari told Salon. A trans woman, Elentari added that the Trump administration was “trying to erase us.”
Entari shared a message to LGBTQ+ allies standing on the sidelines, too: speak up.
“You have to act. Don't call yourself an ally if you're not acting. Show up and protest, donate to queer charities, help trans people directly,” she said.
