Stonewall National Monument Vandalized Multiple Times During Pride Month

The Stonewall Monument, located outside the historic Stonewall Inn bar, has been targeted with vandalism four times during this year's Pride month.

For the fourth time this month, the Pride flags on display at New York City’s Stonewall National Monument have been vandalized. City Councilman Erik Bottcher told CBS New York that four broken flags were found at the historic LGBTQ+ landmark on Monday afternoon, just one day after more than 60 flags were broken. The Pride flags were also vandalized twice last week, prompting an investigation by the New York City Police Department Hate Crimes Task Force.

On Sunday morning, police were called to the location after volunteers discovered that 68 flags had been pulled from the railings, snapped, and thrown to the ground. “We'll always have that reminder that there are those who don't support LGBTQ rights," one Stonewall visitor told FOX 5. "It’s upsetting and sad and concerning [...] at one of the sites where our rights were born and continue to grow."

Steven Menendez, who volunteers at the Stonewall Monument and creates the annual Pride Month display, worked to replace the flags. “We have so much hatred and anger in the air right now,” he told the outlet. “We really need to reverse that and replace it with love, compassion, and acceptance.”

Menendez also cleaned up the damage on June 10, the first time this month that the Pride flags were broken. The @NYPDnews Twitter account posted a photo of “three unknown male individuals” who were captured on surveillance cameras breaking the flags at around 3 a.m.

Menendez told Gothamist that he has been placing around 250 flags on the railings at the Stonewall National Monument every June for the past six years, but the display had never been deliberately vandalized until this month. The display was targeted again on June 15, when a significant number of flags were broken and thrown on the sidewalk.

The Stonewall National Monument is in Christopher Park, just across the street from the Stonewall Inn, the site of a 1969 uprising that became a catalyst in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights in the United States. It was designated a National Monument in 2016.

“The quest for LGBT equality after Stonewall evolved from protests and small gatherings into a nationwide movement,” then-President Barack Obama said in a proclamation establishing the monument. “Lesbian women, gay men, bisexual and transgender people united to ensure equal rights for all people regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Hard-fought civil rights victories in courtrooms and statehouses across the country set the stage for victories in the Supreme Court that would have seemed unthinkable to those who rose up in Greenwich Village in June 1969.”

Related: We Must Protect Queer Spaces at All Costs

Menedez echoed the site’s importance earlier this month. "This is the heart and soul of the LGBTQ movement,” he said. “And this flag display is meant to show hope for the future and honor those who fought for our rights before us.”

The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force has asked anyone who has information about any of these acts of vandalism to call the confidential NYPD Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). Confidential tips can also be submitted through the NYPD website, or through the @NYPDTips Twitter account.

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