‘You can’t erase us’: Community rallies after ‘trans’ and ‘queer’ removed from Stonewall Monument website

New York City (CNN) — After the words “transgender” and “queer” were removed from the National Park Service’s website for the Stonewall National Monument, a landmark of the LGBTQ pride movement in New York City, protesters filled nearby Christopher Park Friday with a simple message: “You can’t erase us.”

The message was scrawled in chalk on the pavement surrounding the park and reflected on the posters demonstrators waved and in the messages from speakers.

“The trans and drag community have always been part of the LGBTQ community,” Steven Love Menendez, a longtime volunteer at the Stonewall Monument, told CNN Friday. “So now for the federal government to try to erase trans from our community makes absolutely no sense.”

Protesters waving trans and rainbow flags and holding banners with messages like “Silence = Death” – a consciousness-raising slogan from the AIDS crisis – and “Erasure is Annihilation” filled the park Friday, spilling out onto the surrounding street. The word “transgender” also appeared written in chalk on the National Parks Service’s “Stonewall National Monument” sign outside Christopher Park.

The demonstration comes after the term “LGBTQ+” was shortened to “LGB” on the NPS web page late this week, according to an archived version of the page. There are no more references to transgender people on the web page – despite what activists and historians say were trans activists’ key contributions to the Stonewall Uprising and the larger LGBTQ rights movement.

The inn and the non-profit Stonewall Inn Gives Back issued a joint statement saying they were “outraged and appalled by the removal.”

“This blatant act of erasure not only distorts the truth of our history, but it also dishonors the immense contributions of transgender individuals – especially transgender women of color – who were at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots and the broader fight for LGBTQ+ rights,” reads the statement.

Rep. Jerry Nadler and New York City Council member Erik Bottcher spoke at the event, condemning the removal and calling for protection of trans rights, alongside other local politicians and activists.

“We are one community,” said Bottcher. “And now is the time for gay and lesbians and cisgender members of our community to stand up.”

For Barbara, a self-described “queer elder” who asked to be identified only by her first name, the removal of transgender history from the monument’s website represents a larger attack against LGBTQ rights.

“They get rid of the information because they want to get rid of us,” she told CNN at the protest.

But, “you cannot erase us,” she went on. “You can’t say we do not exist, because we do.”

Similarly, Jack B., a law student who also asked to be identified only by his first name and last initial due to privacy concerns, said that the removal is part of a “kind of insidious, slow attempt to erase (transgender people) entirely.”

Trans people “are human beings who deserve love and respect and dignity,” he said. “And Stonewall was started by trans folks who threw those first bricks. So to erase them from the monument is just totally oxymoronic, totally paradoxical.”

CNN has sought comment from the National Park Service.

What is Stonewall?

The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the heart of New York City’s Greenwich Village, has been cited as the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement. The bar, opened in 1967, provided a home for gay New Yorkers to meet and dance, at a time when it was still illegal to be gay in most states and there were no laws protecting gay people from discrimination.

But the bar was also subject to frequent police raids. One 1969 police raid at the bar sparked a fierce backlash from its patrons and led to days of protests and skirmishes between LGBTQ rioters and police.

Trans women played a key role in the Stonewall uprising, including activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, who would become pioneers of the burgeoning gay liberation movement. Images of both activists were featured prominently on several signs at Friday’s protest.

Activists formed organizations including the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance in the aftermath of the rebellion, modeling themselves after the Black civil rights movement and the women’s rights movement. Members held protests, met with political leaders and interrupted public meetings to hold those leaders accountable. New York City’s first Pride parade was held on Stonewall’s one-year anniversary.

Today, the inn still functions as a lively gay bar – and a site for historical education. The area surrounding Stonewall, including Christopher Park, was made a national monument in 2016, under then-President Barack Obama, marking the country’s first national monument to LGBTQ rights.

A visitor center next to the bar offers information about the site’s history and the legacy of New York City’s LGBTQ rights movement.

Rep. Nadler, who worked with the Obama administration to establish the Stonewall Monument, said Friday that he had sought “to ensure that the history of LGBTQ resistance, trans resistance, would be told for generations to come.”

The removal of “trans” and “queer” is “an attack on the truth,” he said. “And it’s an attack on the very values of justice and equality.”

‘Trying to erase my existence’

The removal of “transgender” and “queer” from Stonewall’s website follows a flurry of executive orders issued by President Donald Trump that target the transgender community.

In the first weeks of his second term, he declared the federal government will only recognize two sexes that “are not changeable,” banned transgender girls and women from participating in women’s sports, barred transgender people from serving in the military, and blocked federal support for gender-affirming care for minors.

The legislation has already faced backlash and legal challenges, with two transgender girls suing over the sports ban and several social justice groups seeking to block the ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors.

One transgender teen who spoke at Friday’s rally addressed Trump’s executive orders directly.

“The government is trying to erase my existence,” 17-year-old high school junior Lorelei Crean said.

Crean said that they have an “X” gender marker on their government documents. The State Department has suspended processing of passport applications seeking “X” markers following the president’s executive order.

“I as a child know who I am,” Crean said. “And Donald Trump’s administration is not going to strip that from me.”

Crean’s message echoed that of several speakers who made it clear they have no plans to stop fighting anytime soon.

“Trans folks will not go quietly into the night,” transgender actress, model and activist Angelica Christina said.

“We will not cower, nor will we surrender to hatred and bigotry,” she went on. “We will persevere.”

The-CNN-Wire
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