UPDATE: Mark Segal, activist and founder/writer of The Philadelphia Homosexual Information, can be a veteran of the Stonewall Riots and one of many founders of The Homosexual Liberation Entrance, created within the days following the riots. At the moment (Friday, Feb. 14) he issued a press release in response to the Nationwide Park Service’s removing of references to transgender and queer folks from the Stonewall Nationwide Monument:
“The spirit of Stonewall means to be seen and battle again in opposition to oppression. You can not erase the historical past of Stonewall by erasing a letter. You can not erase trans folks by erasing a letter. This petty, vindictive motion is an try to not solely erase trans folks from public view, but additionally all the LGBT group. Stonewall, together with all of us within the LGBT group who fought again that historic night time and have continued to battle for 55 years, can not and won’t be erased. We’ll proceed to battle, we are going to proceed to be seen and persevere, and I urge all in our group to recollect this present day as the start of the second Stonewall revolt.”
ORIGINAL POST: Nationwide and native LGBTQ organizations and activists are calling for a protest at midday Friday, Feb. 14 — Valentine’s Day — on the Stonewall Nationwide Monument in Christopher Park, seventh Avenue South at Christopher Avenue in West Village, New York Metropolis, in response to actions taken earlier in the present day (Thursday, Feb. 13) by the Nationwide Park Service to take away “transgender” and “queer” from the monument.
The Stonewall Inn, designated as a Nationwide Monument by President Barack Obama in 2016, is the positioning of the June riots sparked by police makes an attempt to stage one more raid on The Stonewall Inn, a homosexual membership frequented by transgender ladies, butch lesbians and different gender-diverse folks in addition to homosexual males and lesbians.
The riots are generally thought-about to be the start of the trendy LGBTQ rights motion.
An on-line announcement concerning the referred to as protest reads:
“NO LGB WITHOUT THE T
The Trump Administration has erased trans folks from the stonewall nationwide monument web site… we won’t enable Trump and his hatemongers to redefine our communities or our historical past!”
The Stonewall Inn and the Stonewall Inn Offers Again Initiative issued the next assertion in the present day:
“The Stonewall Inn and The Stonewall Inn Offers Again Initiative are outraged and appalled by the current removing of the phrase ‘transgender’ from the Stonewall Nationwide Monument web page on the Nationwide Park Service web site. This blatant act of erasure not solely distorts the reality of our historical past, but it surely additionally dishonors the immense contributions of transgender people — particularly transgender ladies of colour — who had been on the forefront of the Stonewall Riots and the broader battle for LGBTQ+ rights.
“Allow us to be clear: Stonewall is transgender historical past. Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and numerous different trans and gender-nonconforming people fought bravely, and infrequently at nice private danger, to push again in opposition to oppressive methods. Their braveness, sacrifice, and management had been central to the resistance we now have fun as the inspiration of the trendy LGBTQ+ rights motion.
“This determination to erase the phrase ‘transgender’ is a deliberate try to erase our historical past and marginalize the very individuals who paved the way in which for a lot of victories we’ve got achieved as a group. It’s a direct assault on transgender folks, particularly transgender ladies of colour, who proceed to face violence, discrimination, and erasure at each flip.
“We demand the quick restoration of the phrase ‘transgender’ on the Stonewall Nationwide Monument web site. We won’t stand by whereas the legacies of our transgender siblings are erased from the historical past books. The Stonewall Inn and The Stonewall Inn Offers Again Initiative stands unwaveringly in solidarity with the transgender group and all who battle for full equality, and we won’t relaxation till this grave injustice is corrected.”
— Tammye Nash
