‘Cruel and petty’: Trump move to remove words stuns, baffles
The Donald Trump administration has been accused of trying to “erase” an entire group of people from history.
Donald Trump has been branded “cruel and petty” for a change to a historical US monument which has had the effect of “erasing history” according to some.
The US National Parks Service, which administers the monument, said it had to make the move due to one of Mr Trump’s many executive orders. A politician said it was an “attack on the truth”.
On Thursday, the Parks Service removed references to “trans” on the website for New York’s Stonewall National Monument, despite the entire point of the monument being to mark the civil rights fight for lesbian, gay, bisexual – and transgender – people.
Indeed, several trans people were at the forefront of America’s LGBT civil rights movement.
“It’s an attack on the truth, it’s an attack on the transgender community and it’s an attack on the very values of justice and equality that we as a nation claim to uphold,” said Democratic Congressman for New York Jerrold Nadler on Friday.
Trump’s trans orders
The monument has got sucked into President Trump’s slew of executive orders aimed at transgender people. This has included attempts to move trans female prisoners to male prisons, a ban on trans women in female sports as well as restrictions – and a likely ban – on trans people in the military.
This has also led to transgender specific pages and information on government websites, including in some cases health information, being scrapped.
President Trump’s assertion that there are only “two sexes, male and female,” has now led to the scrubbing of all transgender references for the Stonewall monument in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The word “queer” also appears to have been dumped.
Where it had mentioned, for instance, “LGBTQ” people, it now mentions “LGB” people.
“Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person was illegal,” the website now states.
“The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969, is a milestone in the quest for LGB civil rights and provided momentum for a movement,” the website reads.
The National Park Service told The New York Times it was compelled to remove the references to trans people.
“The agency had taken the actions to carry out an executive order signed by President Trump on his first day in office that was described as ‘restoring biological truth to the federal government’ and a second order signed by the acting secretary of the interior last month.”
‘Cruel and petty’
At the monument’s heart is the Stonewall Inn, perhaps the most famous gay bar in the world. Sydney’s Stonewall bar and UK LGBT rights organisation Stonewall are both named after it.
In 1969, a series of riots and protests occurred around the bar following brutal police raids. The uprising is recognised with being the start of the LGBT rights movement.
Although it’s not known who exactly threw the first brick at the riots, it’s widely credited with being Marsha P Johnson, a black trans woman.
On Friday, US time, protests were held at the Stonewall National Monument, which was dedicated in 2016 by Barack Obama. Last year, then President Joe Biden, alongside singers Elton John and Katy Perry, opened the Stonewall Visitor Centre.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul called out the changes, brought on by Mr Trump’s executive orders, on X.
“This is just cruel and petty,” she wrote.
“Transgender people play a critical role in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights — and New York will never allow their contributions to be erased.”
This is just cruel and petty.
— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) February 13, 2025
Transgender people play a critical role in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights — and New York will never allow their contributions to be erased. https://t.co/flIi3avXSU
‘Attempting to erase trans people’
“You can’t erase trans people, especially with Stonewall, and that’s the attempt that’s trying to be made, when trans people were the ones that started the riot,” E Garcia told freelance journalist Shannon Power.
“I’m devastated. I remember coming here when they first made Stonewall a national monument and it was such a big celebration.
“It feels like this is an attempt to tear it down but we’re not going to let it happen, said E Garcia.”
‘Slap heard around the world’
Another protester, Meghan, said the removal of the “T” and “Q” from the website was a “slap (to LGBTQ) people that’s been heard around the world”.
“If the queer community hadn’t been available to me, I wouldn’t be available right now”.
A board director of the Stonewall Inn also hit back at the removal of trans references.
“We would not have pride as we know it today without trans people, without trans women,” said Angelica Christina.
The bar is part of the monument but is not owned by the federal government.
‘Erasing history’
The National Parks Conservation Association (NCPA), an advocacy organisation for US National Parks, said removing references to transgender people was denying Americans the “full history” of the location.
“Erasing letters or web pages does not change the history or the contributions of our transgender community members at Stonewall or anywhere else,” said the NCPA’s Timothy Leonard.
In some parts of the website the now little used word “transvestite” does appear as well as a few isolated references to “LGBQ”.
The removal of the word “transgender” is even more bizarre because the same website details the history of the Stonewall Uprising, including the role of individual trans people.
It includes images of Ms Johnson who is stated as being a “founding member of Gay Liberation Front and co-founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries”.
There is also a section on another trans activist, Sylvia Rivera.
The Trump administration’s disdain for trans people and so-called “gender ideology,” has led to a number of legal roadblocks with claims his executive orders go against the constitution.
His orders have also had the effect – at least temporarily – of removing vital health information.
For instance, pages on the Centres for Disease Control website on HIV and LGBT people were taken down in their entirety because of the mere mention of trans people.
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