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MANHATTAN (CN) — The Trump administration on Monday reached a settlement with New York City gay rights activists and is allowing the rainbow Pride flag to fly again at the Stonewall monument in Greenwich Village.
In February 2026, the Trump administration removed the Pride flag from Stonewall National Monument, the first national monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ rights history, and replaced it with an American flag, drawing immediate backlash from the city’s LGBTQ+ community and allies.
Pursuant to the stipulationannounced Monday, resolving a civillawsuit over the removal, the federal government agreed to return the Pride flag on the monument’s official flagpole within seven days and maintain it permanently
Manhattan borough president Brad Hoylman-Sigal called the ruling a victory for the Christopher Street gay rights landmark and an important symbol of representation during President Donald Trump’s second term.
“We as an LGBTQ community celebrate the legal climb-down by the gutless Trump Administration on their contemptuous attempt to erase queer people from American history at Stonewall, the birthplace of the worldwide LGBTQ human rights movement,” Hoylman-Sigal, the first out gay man to serve as borough president, wrote in a statement.
The National Park Service quietly removed the flag in February under a memo from the U.S. Department of the Interior requiring federally maintained parks to fly only the American flag, the department’s flag and the Prisoners of War flag.
A coalition of nonprofit groups, represented by Lambda Legal and the Washington Litigation Group, sued the administration in federal court in Manhattan eight days later. The lawsuit argued the administration unlawfully targeted the LGBTQ+ community because the policy exempts flags that provide historical context, such as the Pride flag at Stonewall.
The settlement announced Monday states the Pride flag is allowed under federal law and National Park Service policy, affirming the plaintiffs’ central argument. The parties also agreed the federal court in Manhattan will retain jurisdiction to enforce the agreement.
The Pride flag will fly next to the Park Service flag, both beneath the American flag, in accordance with official policy.
The plaintiffs include three nonprofits: the Gilbert Baker Foundation, which preserves the legacy of the creator of the rainbow Pride flag; Village Preservation, which protects the architectural and cultural heritage of Greenwich Village; and Equality New York, a statewide LGBTQ+ advocacy organization.
The groups argue the government selectively enforced the Interior Department’s flag policy in an arbitrary and capricious manner, violating the Administrative Procedure Act. Each said it had to divert resources in response to the flag’s removal, giving them standing to sue.
Alexander Kristofcak, lead counsel for plaintiffs and a lawyer with Washington Litigation Group, described the settlement on Monday as “a complete victory for our clients and for the LGBTQ+ community.”
“The government has acknowledged what we argued from day one: the Pride flag belongs at Stonewall,” Kristofcak, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor, said in a statement. “And we will remain vigilant to ensure that the government sticks to the deal.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in February he was “outraged” at the flag’s removal from the monument.
“New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history,” the freshman mayorwrote in a statement just one month after his inauguration. “Our city has a duty not just to honor this legacy, but to live up to it. I will always fight for a New York City that invests in our LGBTQ+ community, defends their dignity, and protects every one of our neighbors—without exception.”
New York City’s Pride March, which began as an annual demonstration honoring the 1969 Stonewall riots, will be held in June, with this year’s theme: “For All of Us”.
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