Chuck Schumer moves to make Stonewall Pride flag permanent: ‘It’s a living symbol of struggle and resilience’
"I am introducing legislation to designate the Pride flag as a congressionally authorised flag in America," said senate minority leader Schumer
By Aaron Sugg
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has vowed to introduce legislation that will make the Stonewall National Monument Pride flag permanent.
The statement comes after the Trump administration and the National Park Service removed a large Pride flag at the New York LGBTQ+ historic landmark on 7 February 2026.
As protests continue, advocates including Schumer gathered on 15 February, with the senator saying he and others were outraged.
“A deeply outrageous action that must be reversed” – Chuck Schumer condemning the Stonewall pride flag removal
“The Trump administration’s removal of the Pride Rainbow flag from the Stonewall National Monument is a deeply outrageous action that must be reversed,” he told the local press.
“It’s not a decoration. It’s a living symbol of struggle and resilience,” Schumer continued.
“I am introducing legislation to designate the Pride flag as a congressionally authorised flag in America, and that means it can be flown here and everywhere else, and no one, no one, can take it down,” he concluded.
“I will be introducing federal legislation to make the Pride flag a congressionally authorised symbol” – Schumer on making the Stonewall Pride flag permanent
Writing on Facebook, the politician reiterated his message: “The Stonewall Inn is sacred ground. Last week, Donald Trump attacked not just the LGBTQ community, but all of us who care about pride and equality in NYC when he ordered the removal of the Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument.”
Schumer continued: “I will be introducing federal legislation to make the Pride Flag a congressionally authorised symbol.”
“We will not allow Donald Trump to engineer a crusade against the LGBTQ community and rewrite history,” he stated.
An Interior Department memo states that the only flags that should be on display are “federal government’s official sentiments”
The removal of the flag has widely been seen as a continuation of efforts to roll back diversity initiatives across the United States since Trump began his second presidential term in 2025.
On 21 January 2026, an Interior Department memo, which oversees the National Park Service, clarified that only US flags, agency flags and the POW/MIA flag are permitted on park flagpoles.
I am outraged by the removal of the Rainbow Pride Flag from Stonewall National Monument. New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history.
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) February 10, 2026
Our city has a duty not just to honor this legacy, but to…
The order states: “Interior Department flagpoles are not intended to serve as a forum for free expression by the public.” It adds that approved flags represent “the federal government’s official sentiments.”
“I am outraged by the removal” – New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on the Stonewall Pride flag removal
When it came to light that the Pride flag had been removed in secret, New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani criticised the move.
Writing on X on 10 February, he said: “I am outraged by the removal of the Rainbow Pride flag from Stonewall National Monument.”
Established in 2016 by former president Barack Obama, the Stonewall National Monument was created to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall uprising.
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