Rainbow flags along New York City’s Stonewall National Monument in honor of Pride month were removed and destroyed this week, police said. This marks the second year in a row that the flags have been vandalized during the annual celebration of the LGBTQ+ community in June.
Authorities received a report early Friday about the missing flags at the monument in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood.
Preliminary investigation revealed that an unknown person removed and destroyed several flags at the location on Thursday evening. The person then fled, police said.
No injuries have been reported and no arrests have been announced. The investigation is still ongoing, police said Saturday morning.
New York City Councilman Erik Bottcher, who is gay and whose district includes Greenwich Village, posted images of the damaged flags in a social media post and wrote: “Anyone who thinks this will intimidate our community is sorely mistaken.”
Last night, bigots vandalized Stonewall National Monument, breaking flagpoles and stealing three-quarters of the flags around the park’s permit holder. Someone also burned Pride decorations on 22nd St. in Chelsea. Anyone who thinks this will intimidate our community is sorely mistaken. pic.twitter.com/x6K033UXBL
— Erik Bottcher (@ebottcher) June 14, 2024
attorney general of New York Letitia James described the vandalism as “disgusting” and urged anyone with information to contact police. “In New York we stand for love and acceptance, not hate and bigotry,” James wrote.
“The desecration of Pride decorations is unacceptable under any circumstances and especially hateful during Pride Month,” wrote Democratic New York Rep. Dan Goldman. “As a community, we must stand against hate in any form.”
New York Mayor Eric Adams, who hosted a Pride Month celebration at his official residence in Gracie Mansion on Thursday, also condemned the vandalism.
“Hate has no place in our city, and nothing will change that,” Adams wrote. “We love and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community at Pride and throughout the year. We will always have your back, and we will bring whoever desecrated the Stonewall monument to justice.”
Stonewall National Monument includes Christopher Park and the Stonewall Inn, where gay men, lesbians and drag queens responded to a 1969 police raid with a riot that sparked the LGBTQ+ rights movement in America and around the world.
In 2016, Barack Obama’s White House designated the Stonewall Inn as the first-ever national monument to the LGBTQ+ equality movement. That was less than two weeks after 49 people were shot dead at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
Last year, the Pride flags at the monument were vandalized three times during Pride month. Three men were arrested in connection with the incidents and charged with criminal conduct as a hate crime.
Less than a day after the flags were broken and stolen this week, replacements had been installed for everyone, WABC reported. “I wish people would just educate themselves about Stonewall and the amazing things that happened here,” one resident told the outlet. . “It was a very, very powerful moment and for people to just take that away from people is very, very disappointing and sad.”
