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The Trump administration has been sued for removing the Pride flag from the historic Stonewall National Monument in New York City this month.

A lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court by a group of nonprofit organizations, argues that the move violated a federal law that allowed other flags on National Park Service (NPS) sites that provide historical context to national monuments, including Confederate flags.

“This was not a careless error,” says the lawsuit, which is led by a foundation honoring Gilbert Baker, the artist who created the rainbow Pride flag in the late 1970s.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, adds that the administration “has not removed other historic flags at other national monuments, especially Confederate flags,” and says the “capricious action” violates the Administrative Procedure Act.

It continues: “Meanwhile, the assault on Stonewall is the latest example in a long series of efforts by the Trump Administration to target the LGBTQ+ community with discrimination and opprobrium.”

The Stonewall National Memorial honors Manhattan gay bar The Stonewall Inn, where the community fought back against a New York Police Department raid in 1969. The uprising is considered a turning point for LGBTQ+ rights.

In early February, the iconic multicolored flag, which includes colors representing the transgender community, was quietly removed from a flagpole at the NPS-managed site, which is located in a small park in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.

The NPS justified the decision by citing a directive from the Department of the Interior (DOI), issued last month, and stating that “only the United States flag and other flags authorized by Congress or the department fly on flagpoles managed by the NPS, with limited exceptions.”

But the lawsuit says the NPS and DOI policies “require no such thing.”

Spencer Platt via Getty Images

“In fact, the opposite is true,” the complaint reads. “The policies that the government says require removing the Pride flag expressly allow the NPS to fly other flags that provide historical context to national monuments, which is precisely what the official NPS Pride flag at Stonewall did for many years.”

The historical context exception is what allows Confederate flags to be flown on NPS-managed properties such as Gettysburg National Military Park, the lawsuit contends.

The filing adds that the move is consistent with the Trump administration’s “broader campaign to demean and erase the transgender community,” noting that the word “transgender” has recently been removed from sections of the Stonewall monument website.

An Interior Department spokesperson responded to News themezone’s request for comment with partisan criticism that did not address the lawsuit’s claims. Instead, the spokesperson dwelled on the extremely cold weather that has affected New York City operations in recent weeks and criticized the city’s Democratic Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, along with New York Senator Chuck Schumer (D).

“Hundreds of families in New York City were left without power during this year’s severe cold weather, people are being found dead in the streets, and trash has piled up so high that it overwhelms city residents,” the spokesperson said. “This is Mayor Mamdani, Senator Schumer and the New York City congressional delegation.”

“It would be a better use of your time to remove the buildup of trash from city streets, ensure there are no more preventable deaths, and work to maintain power for the people of New York City,” the spokesperson continued. “This political pageantry shows how utterly incompetent and misaligned New York City officials and New York Congressional representatives are with the issues facing their city.”

Charles Beal, president of the Gilbert Baker Foundation, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said the Pride flag is “recognized globally as a symbol of hope and liberation for the LGBTQ+ community whose efforts and resistance define this monument.”

“Eliminating it would, in effect, erase its history and the voices that Stonewall honors,” Beal added.

Hundreds of New Yorkers protested the flag’s removal, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said, “New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of removal will ever change or silence that history.”

New York City officials raised the flag again late last week, but it risks being taken down once again.

News themezone has contacted the National Park Service for comment.