‘Transgender' and ‘queer' wiped from Stonewall website in ‘blatant attempt to discriminate'
Outraged LGBTQ+ activists and human rights advocates gathered in Manthattan's Greenwich Village Friday afternoon to protest against the Trump administration's latest — and perhaps boldest — attack on the community.
A day earlier, internet users noticed that all references to the words 'transgender' and 'queer' had been removed from the Stonewall National Monument website, a move described by New York State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal as 'one of the darkest moments in American history.'
The anti-LGBTQ move — seen as a deliberate attempt to rewrite history while further marginalizing trans people — sparked a near-immediate response from members of the community, who gathered on Friday at Christopher Park, just across from the historic Stonewall Inn, to express their fury and frustration.
Waving transgender and rainbow Pride flags and signs that read 'No LGB without the T' and 'You can't spell Stonewall without the T,' politicians, activists and community members came together to protest against the change while renewing their commitment to fight against the current administration's relentless attack on LGBTQ+ rights.
'It's just another part of the chaos and cascade of attacks that the queer community is facing under the Trump administration,' Cathy Renna, spokesperson for the National LGBTQ Task Force, told ABC7. 'I think this one hurts, particularly because this is really, for so many of us, a place where we come when good things happen.'
The Stonewall Inn bar, the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ history, is where in the summer of 1969, trans women of color, homeless LGBTQ youth, lesbians, drag queens, gay men and their allies rioted, protested, got arrested and changed the course of history.
As recently as Wednesday, anyone visiting the National Park Service page for the Stonewall National Monument website would read the following paragraph:
'Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ+) person was illegal. The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969 is a milestone in the quest for LGBTQ+ civil rights and provided momentum for a movement.'
On Thursday, however, a chilling modification to the text replaced 'living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ+) person' with 'living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person.'
The change stunned LGBTQ+ activists, who pointed out the pivotal role transgender women — particularly trans women of color— played in the Stonewall Uprising.
'Let us be clear: Stonewall is transgender history,' the Stonewall Inn said in a statement shared with the Daily News. 'Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera and countless other trans and gender-nonconforming individuals fought bravely, and often at great personal risk, to push back against oppressive systems. Their courage, sacrifice, and leadership were central to the resistance we now celebrate as the foundation of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.'
The decision is just another example of the Trump administration's 'blatant attempts to discriminate against and erase the legacies of transgender and queer Americans,' a GLAAD spokesperson told the News.
'The White House's attempt at LGBTQ erasure not only distorts U.S. history but also contradicts factual evidence,' Sen. Hoylman-Sigal, who's openly gay, told the Daily News. It also 'signals the continued, morally reprehensible effort by the White House to demean, demoralize and discriminate against an entire population of Americans.'
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