As of February 13, the word "transgender" has been removed from the Stonewall National Monument web page in Greenwich Village, New York. The site and monument, which are part of the National Park Service, also removed the "T" representing trans people, as well as the "Q" for "queer."
The move comes a short time after the Bay Area Reporter noted that the San Francisco site of the 1966 Compton's Cafeteria riots had been granted federal landmark status specifically for its connection to the transgender community.
The Stonewall National Monument honors the Stonewall Riots, which took place from June 28 to July 3, 1969, when transgender, bisexual, gay, and lesbian patrons of the Stonewall Inn pushed back against targeted harassment and police raids. The uprising has long been considered the beginning of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.
Trans and gender-nonconforming people, butch lesbians, and gay men were among those who led the rebellion, calling for better treatment and an end to anti-LGBTQ+ abuse. Notable participants include Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Stormé DeLarverie, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, Mark Segal, and Virginia Apuzzo, among others.
LGBTQ+ advocates are beginning to speak out against the removal of "trans" and "queer" from the site.
Writer and Gender Liberation Movement co-founder Raquel Willis posted on X, "The Stonewall Riots happened because of trans people, particularly of color, [who] rose up against state violence. You can't even begin to tell the story without our ancestors and elders."
Gay New York City Councilmember Erik Bottcher tweeted, "The Trump administration has erased transgender people from the Stonewall National Monument website. We will not allow them to erase the very existence of our siblings. We are one community!!"
Timothy Leonard, northeast program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, an independent, nonpartisan membership organization dedicated to advocacy on behalf of the National Parks System, issued a statement late Thursday.
"The National Park Service exists to not only protect and preserve our most cherished places but to educate its millions of annual national park visitors about the inclusive, full history of America," Leonard stated. "Erasing letters or web pages does not change the history or the contributions of our transgender community members at Stonewall or anywhere else. History was made here and civil rights were earned because of Stonewall. And we're committed to ensuring more people know that story and how it continues to influence America today. Stonewall inspires and our parks must continue to include diverse stories that welcome and represent the people that shaped our nation."
Mark Segal, a gay man and Stonewall pioneer, stated that history cannot be erased.
"The spirit of Stonewall means to be visible and fight back against oppression," stated Segal, who is publisher of Philadelphia Gay News. "You cannot erase the history of Stonewall by erasing a letter. You cannot erase trans people by erasing a letter.
"This petty, vindictive action is an attempt to not only erase trans people from public view, but also the entire LGBT community. Stonewall, including all of us in the LGBT community who fought back that historic night and have continued to fight for 55 years, cannot and will not be erased. We will continue to fight, we will continue to be visible and persevere, and I urge all in our community to remember this day as the beginning of the second Stonewall rebellion."
Ben Garcia, a gay man who is executive director of the New York City-based American LGBTQ+ Museum, also issued a statement.
"The record is clear: from the start of the modern-day LGBTQ+ rights movement in the 1960s up to today, transgender people have been the heart of the fight for equality," stated Garcia. "As a museum of American history we will not stand for this attempted erasure of transgender people from the Stonewall National Monument site – LGB does not exist without T and Q."
SF site recognized; exhibit temporarily removed in Richmond
As the B.A.R. reported, on January 27 the building at 101 Taylor Street in San Francisco was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The Tenderloin District building was listed without fanfare last month, with the news of the national recognition reaching local advocates earlier this month.
The address was where one night in August 1966 an angry drag queen patronizing Gene Compton's Cafeteria housed in a ground floor commercial space reportedly threw a cup of hot coffee in the face of a police officer as he tried to arrest her without a warrant. The exact date of the altercation has been lost to time. But the incident sparked a riot between trans and queer patrons of the 24-hour diner and cops, as detailed in the 2005 documentary "Screaming Queens" by transgender scholar and historian Susan Stryker, Ph.D.
Meanwhile, in Richmond, California, the Rosie the Riveter WW II Home Front Museum last month had removed an LGBTQ history-related exhibit, but then returned it. According to Oaklandside, a volunteer was under the understanding that an official order had been given January 23 to take down the exhibit, a series of three panels discussing the history of the LGBTQ community in the Bay Area during World War II.
The outlet reported that a spokesperson for the National Park Service said the exhibit is up. While the words "transgender" and "queer" and the LGBTQ acronym were on the site February 13, those had been replaced with "LGB" by February 18.
This story was first published on News is Out, a collaboration of LGBTQ publications of which the Bay Area Reporter is a member. The B.A.R. contributed reporting.
Updated, 2/14/25: This article has been updated with additional comments from nonprofit and LGBTQ leaders.
Updated, 2/18/25: This article has been updated to state that the LGBTQ page for the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front Museum has been changed to "LGB."
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