By Dana Piccoli, reprinted here courtesy of News Is Out
As of Feb. 13, the word “transgender” has been removed from the Stonewall National Monument web page in Greenwich Village, N.Y., according to reporting by Dana Piccoli, editor of the News Is Out website.
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 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.”
New York City Council member 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!!”
In a press statement released about 7 p.m. Central, today (Thursday, Feb. 13), the National Federation of Stonewall Democrats pledged, “We will not allow the Trump/Elon Musk effort to invent a story that erases Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, that forgets the presence of Miss Major and the other transgender heroes who said ‘No more,’ and whose fighting back led to the Stonewall Uprising.”
The press release includes a quote from the federation’s president, Jeremy Comeau, who said, “Trump and Musk’s attempt to claim that this was a quest for what they call LGB rights is as doomed as the five anti transgender executive orders Trump signed in his first two weeks in office.
“We note with pleasure,” Comeau continued, “that Trump’s ban on gender affirming care has already been enjoined in the federal courts, and we look forward to more defeats for bigotry and discrimination.”
“An aging kleptocrat and an unprincipled tech bro can try to rewrite history, but they will, without question, fail.”
Kristen Browde, vice president of the National Federation of Stonewall Democrats
Federation Vice President Kristen Browde, a transgender woman added, “An aging kleptocrat and an unprincipled tech bro can try to rewrite history, but they will, without question, fail.
“We will never forget Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera and Miss Major, nor will we forget the trans women of the Compton Cafeteria in San Francisco, who stood up to anti-trans discrimination in 1966,” Browde promised. “We will not be erased, by Trump, by Musk or by anyone else.”
Watch News Is Out and Dallas Voice for updates on this story as they become available.