Politics

The modifications come after an govt order President Trump signed calling for the federal authorities to outline intercourse as solely male or feminine.

By SUSAN HAIGH, Related Press

February 14, 2025 | 8:19 AM

3 minutes to learn

References to transgender folks have been eliminated Thursday from a Nationwide Park Service web site for the Stonewall Nationwide Monument, a park and customer middle in New York that commemorates a 1969 riot that turned a pivotal second for the LGBTQ+ rights motion.

The modifications have been made within the wake of an govt order President Donald Trump signed on his first day in workplace calling for the federal authorities to outline intercourse as solely male or feminine.

“That is simply merciless and petty,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, posted on X. “Transgender folks play a vital position within the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights — and New York won’t ever enable their contributions to be erased.”

The monument in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village part is predicated in a tiny park throughout the road from the Stonewall Inn, a bar that turned floor zero for the homosexual rights motion on June 28, 1969, when homosexual and transgender patrons and neighborhood residents fought again in opposition to a police raid.

The park service web site on Friday was nonetheless stuffed with details about the rebellion, together with images of famous transgender activists.

However the phrases “transgender” and “queer” had been deleted from textual content that had been on the location.

Additionally, the letters T and Q have been lower from numerous references to the acronym LGBTQ and changed with phrases just like the “LGB rights motion” or “LGB civil rights.”

Representatives of the present-day Stonewall Inn, which is a part of the nationwide monument, and The Stonewall Inn Provides Again Initiative, a nonprofit group related to the historic bar, expressed anger and outrage over the modifications.

“This blatant act of erasure not solely distorts the reality of our historical past, however it additionally dishonors the immense contributions of transgender people — particularly transgender girls of coloration — who have been on the forefront of the Stonewall Riots and the broader struggle for LGBTQ+ rights,” stated organizers of the 2 entities in an announcement.

“They’re making an attempt to actually cis-wash, if you’ll, LGBTQ historical past by taking trans of us and saying they didn’t exist then and don’t exist now,” stated Stacy Lentz, CEO of The Stonewall Inn Provides Again Initiative and a co-owner of The Stonewall Inn. “It is vitally alarming.”

Angelica Christina, who’s board director of the initiative and a transgender girl, stated the modifications to the web site usually are not stunning given “the fixed govt orders the Trump administration has been leveling in opposition to the trans group.”

However she stated it’s surprising and unnerving to see the Stonewall Nationwide Monument specifically focused: “The West Village, and particularly the Stonewall Inn, has at all times been a protected haven for the LGBT group.”

Earlier this week, the homepage for the nationwide monument stated that “Earlier than the Nineteen Sixties, virtually every thing about dwelling overtly as a lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ+) individual was unlawful.”

On Thursday, it stated: “Earlier than the Nineteen Sixties, virtually every thing about dwelling overtly as a lesbian, homosexual, bisexual (LGB) individual was unlawful.”

The Nationwide Park Service didn’t reply to a message left Thursday searching for touch upon the modifications. The service beforehand didn’t reply to questions on whether or not Trump’s govt order would imply modifications for the monument.

Timothy Leonard, Northeast program supervisor for the Nationwide Parks Conservation Affiliation, a 1.6 million-member nonprofit group that advocates on behalf of nationwide parks and helped push for the Stonewall monument, stated “erasing letters or webpages” doesn’t change historical past or the contributions of the transgender group at Stonewall or elsewhere.

“The Nationwide Park Service exists to not solely defend and protect our most cherished locations however to coach its thousands and thousands of annual nationwide park guests concerning the inclusive, full historical past of America,” Leonard stated.

Then President Barack Obama designated the Stonewall Nationwide Monument in 2016.

Final yr, a $3.2 million customer middle run by the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Satisfaction Dwell opened on the web site, in partnership with the park service, to inform the Stonewall story in additional depth. The middle was financed principally with non-public donations, apart from $450,000 from the park service’s charitable arm.

Trump’s order declared the federal authorities would acknowledge solely two immutable sexes: female and male, primarily based on whether or not persons are born with eggs or sperm, reasonably than on their chromosomes. The change is being pitched as a solution to defend girls from “gender extremism.”

Conservative teams such because the American Household Affiliation have praised the change as one which acknowledges the reality. However consultants together with the American Medical Affiliation and American Psychiatric Affiliation maintain that gender is a spectrum, not a binary construction consisting solely of women and men.