Prepare for “the beginning of the second Stonewall rebellion.”
At least that’s how activist and Stonewall pioneer Mark Segal reacted to the National Park Service website removing any reference to transgender people on the Stonewall Inn monument page. It now refers to the LGBTQ community as “LGB” or “LGBQ,” and wiped mentions of the word “queer.”
The webpage provided educational information on the turning point that fueled a historic LGBTQ liberation movement. On June 28, 1969, a police raid of a local gay bar in New York City called the Stonewall Inn sparked days of riots and protests.
It’s unclear why the decision was made, but it follows multiple executive orders and harsh rhetoric targeting the transgender community from President Donald Trump. In just a month, Trump has signed executive orders recognizing two genders and banning trans athletes from women’s sports.
Segal, who participated in the Stonewall riots at 18 years old, said the changes won’t discount history.
“The spirit of Stonewall means to be visible and fight back against oppression,” Segal said. “You cannot erase the history of Stonewall by erasing a letter. You cannot erase trans people by erasing a letter.”
The move is anything but a factual correction –– trans people like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were at the forefront of the Stonewall rebellion and gay rights movement.
Johnson fought for the inclusion of transgender and LGBTQ people of color in the movement. Rivera was credited with throwing the second Molotov cocktail at police during the Stonewall riots, and was a prominent activist alongside Johnson.
With that history in mind, the National Park Service only credits the Stonewall rebellion as an advancement for lesbian, gay and bisexual rights.
“The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969 is a milestone in the quest for LGB civil rights and provided momentum for a movement,” the web page reads.
Profiles on Johnson and Rivera posted in 2020 by the National Park Service are still active on the site, and mention the word “transgender."
If objective history is now being tampered with, where can you cut through the noise and get the facts?
Here are a few websites that educate on the Stonewall rebellion and, yes, mention the word transgender:
