by Spencer Macnaughton | Uncloseted Media
This story was originally published by Uncloseted Media, an LGBTQ-focused investigative news outlet.

This week, the Trump administration removed a large Pride flag at the Stonewall National Monument, which sits adjacent to The Stonewall Inn—the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement.

“Under government-wide guidance … only the U.S. flag and other congressionally or departmentally authorized flags are flown on NPS-managed flagpoles, with limited exceptions,” a spokesperson for the National Park Service told Gay City News. “Any changes to flag displays are made to ensure consistency with that guidance.”

The news went viral and sparked outrage both online and in person: Bravo TV host and executive producer Andy Cohen wrote in the comments of an Uncloseted Media post: “Put [the flag] back every day.” And on Tuesday, a rally in front of the monument drew over 100 protesters.

“To think you can go to Stonewall and just take down the Pride flag—that is telling of the time we are living in,” Stacy Lentz, co-owner of the bar and co-founder of the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative, told The New York Times. “The flag is not just an abstract symbol; it tells LGBTQ people, especially younger ones, that their history will not be sidelined.”

The Trump administration’s erasure of LGBTQ history has been aggressive and fast. Here are just a few of the moves he’s made in his first year in office:

• Jan. 21, 2025: Nearly all LGBTQ and HIV-focused content and resources are deleted from the White House’s website.
• Feb. 3, 2025: Mentions of LGBTQ people are erased or minimized across federal government websites. The LGBTQ acronym is morphed to exclude transgender people on the State Department’s “Resources for LGB Prospective Adoptive Parents” page and the “Social Security for LGBQ People” page. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also removes mentions of trans people from their Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which asks about LGBTQ-related bullying.
• June 3, 2025: During the first week of Pride Month, the Department of Defense removes LGBTQ icon Harvey Milk’s name from a U.S. naval vessel and plans to rename it.
• July 10, 2025: Mentions of bisexuality are removed from parts of the National Park Service’s website on the Stonewall National Monument, though some would later be restored. This comes five months after mentions of trans people were erased.
• Aug. 21, 2025: The White House publishes a list of 20 Smithsonian exhibits deemed objectionable, including many that highlight LGBTQ communities. Targeted works include the American History Museum’s LGBTQ+ exhibit that explores queer and disabled people.
• Sept. 20, 2025: The CDC removes or restricts webpages related to LGBTQ health and equity. Deleted pages include “About Shigella Among Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex With Men” and “STI Information for Transgender and Gender Diverse Persons.”
• Oct. 1, 2025: FBI Director Kash Patel fires a trainee for displaying a Pride flag on his desk, labeling it an improper “political” message.

It’s head-spinning to think about all that’s been lost in the first year of Trump 2.0. But it shouldn’t be surprising. Trump is surrounded with queerphobic people: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson believes that “any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography or any attempt to change one’s sex, or disagreement with one’s biological sex, is sinful.” And Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth served as publisher for a magazine where editors said that “the movement to legitimize the homosexual lifestyle and homosexual marriages … must be vigorously opposed.”

As I reflect on all of this, my takeaway is that we need to see the U.S. government under Trump for what it is: an anti-LGBTQ hate group. Given their actions, we should see them as no different from groups like MassResistance or Alliance Defending Freedom, organizations that have made fighting against LGBTQ rights a core part of their missions.

It feels extreme to suggest this simply because it’s the U.S. government we’re talking about. But when I assess the facts and interrogate my own bias, reporting that the Trump administration is a homophobic and transphobic institution is—at this point—a reflection of an objective truth.