By Jonathan Allen
NEW YORK, April 13 (Reuters) – The Trump administration has agreed to restore a large rainbow Pride flag to New York’s Stonewall National Monument, reversing its decision to remove the symbol from the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement, a court filing said on Monday.
The reversal is a rare retreat for President Donald Trump’s Republican administration, which has aggressively moved to purge diversity, equity and inclusion policies and symbols from the federal government.
The National Park Service, the federal agency overseeing U.S. national monuments, had removed the flag nL1N3Z616M without warning two months ago, saying the flag was not an expression of the Trump administration’s “official sentiments.”
Some New Yorkers sued the Trump administration to restore the flag to the monument, a small park at a busy Greenwich Village intersection in Manhattan.
Under the proposed settlement filed for Manhattan federal Judge Jennifer Rochon’s approval, the National Park Service agreed to fly the Pride flag alongside the U.S. and agency flags, barring maintenance or other practical needs.
Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who with other elected officials raised an unauthorized Pride flag at the monument a few days after its removal, said the administration had “blinked and backed down.”
The National Park Service did not respond to questions about why it had reversed course.
In February it had said the flag was removed in keeping with a policy which allows for flags besides the U.S. flag to be flown on federally managed property that “represent historical context” at the site.
The Stonewall National Monument is near where gay, lesbian and transgender New Yorkers rioted and protested in 1969 in response to a late-night police raid of the Stonewall Inn, at a time when such raids of gay bars were commonplace.
The lawsuit was filed by groups including the Gilbert Baker Foundation, whose president, Charley Beal, said restoring the flag affirms the monument’s historical significance.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Howard Goller)
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