Protest erupts in New York as 'transgender' and 'queer' scrubbed from rights website

The National Park Service has scrubbed references to transgender and queer people from the website of a monument to the 1969 Stonewall riots, a foundational moment in the struggle for LGBTQ rights, igniting protests in New York City on Friday.

The move comes as President Donald Trump has sought a return to a strict binary definition of gender in the United States, leading attacks on transgender people and issuing an executive order that states the country only has two genders – male and female.

The website – managed by the National Park Service, a branch of the federal government – had provided information about the monument, which includes a visitor center as well as the famed Stonewall Inn.

The small Greenwich Village gay bar was raided by police on June 28, 1969, igniting six days of rioting that birthed the modern gay rights movement, later extended to transgender and non-binary people, who do not identify as male or female.

But on Friday the widely-used “LGBTQ” acronym – which stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer – had been changed throughout the website to “LGB” and all reference to transgender or queer people erased.

Several hundred people carried signs bearing slogans such as “Silence = death” and “there’s no Stonewall without the T” as they rallied in New York City against the move.

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“This is just cruel and petty,” posted New York Governor Kathy Hochul on social media.

“Transgender people play a critical role in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights – and New York will never allow their contributions to be erased,” she wrote.

Trump has demonized any recognition of gender diversity, attacking transgender people – notably transgender women in sports – and gender-affirming care for children – in both his rhetoric and in executive orders.