Happy Thursday in New York City, where President Donald Trump is renewing his attacks on the Stonewall National Monument.
After scrubbing all references to “queer” or “transgender” people on the Stonewall website in February of 2025, officials with the National Park Service returned to the monument on Monday to replace the rainbow Pride flag that has flown there since 2022 with an American flag.
“Only the U.S. flag and other congressionally or departmentally authorized flags are flown on NPS-managed flagpoles, with limited exceptions,” a spokesperson for the National Park Service told Gay City News.
Stonewall is considered the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. It was designated as a national monument by former President Barack Obama in 2016 to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall uprising, when hundreds of protesters clashed with police on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in a series of spontaneous demonstrations that galvanized a national fight for gay rights.
This is not the first time the Trump administration has waged battle over the Pride flag at Stonewall. In 2017, during his first term, President Trump argued that the site was not federal land in an effort to distance the National Park Service from a flag-raising ceremony. Now, he is invoking the opposite logic to prohibit the rainbow flag from flying on a federally-managed flagpole.
The removal immediately drew backlash from community members, activists and politicians. Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, along with Congressmember Dan Goldman and State Senators Brian Kavanagh and Erik Bottcher, announced they will return the flag to the Stonewall monument today at 4 p.m. Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani also called for the Pride flag to be restored.
“If you can’t raise a flag at the national monument for Stonewall, where on earth can you?” Hoylman-Sigal told Gay City News.
Attorney General Letitia James announced a settlement with a gun accessory manufacturer, barring it from selling its detachable magazine lock in New York and requiring $1.75 million in restitution tied to the 2022 Buffalo mass shooting in a Tops grocery store.
Brooklyn Public Library illuminates Black history with “Printing Black America,” an exhibition portraying Black life in the 21st century based on the data visualizations of W.E.B. Du Bois.
A new bill before the state legislature would bar grocery stores and pharmacies from using technology to adjust pricing on the fly, also known as ‘surveillance pricing.’
A separate bill introduced this week, the One Fair Price Act, would go further, barring almost all New York businesses from adjusting prices based on personal data.
Seven Catholic elementary schools, including one in Brooklyn, will close at the end of the current academic year, the Diocese of Brooklyn announced.
“Second Sundays” at Pioneer Works in Red Hook allows visitors to explore the historic building, talk to artists-in-residence in their open studios and engage with open exhibits and hands-on activities.
The Fire Department of New York graduated 181 new firefighters at a ceremony in East New York.
The Brooklyn Nets blew an 18-point lead to the Indiana Pacers’ second-string team last night.
Our World In Photos
Photo: J. Scott Applew/AP
WASHINGTON D.C. — Keeping her feet out of sight, Bondi displays her tap dancing skills: Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026.
For more pictures like this, see Our World in Photos.
Machine-made snow makes ski racing faster and riskier, and it’s everywhere
Photo: Luca Bruno/AP
When viewers tune in to the 2026 Winter Olympics, they will see pristine, white slopes, groomed tracks and athletes racing over snow-covered landscapes, thanks in part to a storm that blanketed the mountain venues of the Italian Alps with fresh powder just in time.
But at lower elevations, where cross-country and other events are held, athletes and organizers have been contending with rain; thin, sometimes slushy snow; and icy, machine-made surfaces.
The Mini
Our solver finished in 1 minute 46 seconds. Can you beat it?
Cartoon Sketchbook
By Ed Wexler
For the Road
Gal-, Pal-, or Val-entine’s Activities: BKLYN LIVE has a list of Valentine’s weekend happenings around the borough. Grab a gal, a pal or a date and enjoy the love. Get the full list of activities at BKLYN LIVE, the Brooklyn Eagle’s arts and entertainment newsletter.
Happy Birthday to “Black Swan” director Darren Aronofsky!
On This Day in 1926, the Eagle reported: “A realistic group showing Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves caused hundreds of passers-by on Fulton st. to look into the window of the Namm store today.”
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