Trump erasure of transgender references extends to Stonewall monument website
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-erasure-of-transgender-references-extends-to-stonewall-monument-website/ar-AA1z2xlZ?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=66caffe4afd540388997f5502604a5aa&ei=98
Story by Daniel Trotta (14 Feb 2025)
(Reuters) - President Donald Trump's transgender policy began with a Day One executive order delegitimizing gender identity. Now it has encroached on a conspicuous place, removing the word "transgender" from the U.S. National Park Service website for the Stonewall National Monument.
The monument commemorates the Stonewall Inn, a New York gay bar where resistance to a 1969 police raid sparked the civil rights movement expanding LGBTQ rights.
While other Trump measures carry real-world implications for transgender Americans in the military, seeking healthcare or playing sports, the symbolic measure of removing the word transgender was especially painful, perceived as an attempt to erase them.
The monument's website was initially altered on Thursday to refer to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer (LGBQ+)" people, deleting the letter T from the acronym.
Later in the day, the Q and + were removed, leaving the acronym as LGB, a usage that was more common in a less inclusive era before 1990.
"This is literally coming into our house and trying to erase trans people," said Stacy Lentz, co-owner of the Stonewall Inn.
"The Stonewall Riots happened because trans people, particularly of color, rose up against state violence. You can't even begin to tell the story without our trans ancestors and elders," transgender activist Raquel Willis said on X.