Trump administration sued for tearing down Pride flags while leaving Confederate flags up - LGBTQ Nation

"The Trump administration violated federal law when it removed the LGBTQ+ Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument in New York City, according to a lawsuit filed by several nonprofit groups on Tuesday. The lawsuit, led by the Gilbert Baker Foundation - which honors the artist who created the original, eight-striped rainbow Pride flag in the 1970s - alleges that the administration's "arbitrary and capricious" removal of flag earlier this month violates the Administrative Procedures Act."

""The policies the government says require removing the Pride flag expressly permit the [National Parks Service] to fly other flags that provide historical context to national monuments-which is precisely what the NPS official Pride flag did at Stonewall for many years," the lawsuit states. As the New York Times notes, an NPS-sanctioned Pride flag that has for years flown in Christopher Park, the site of the Stonewall Monument in New York's Greenwich Village, was removed sometime during the night of February 8."

Nonprofit groups led by the Gilbert Baker Foundation filed a lawsuit alleging the Trump administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act by removing the LGBTQ+ Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument. The suit describes the removal as "arbitrary and capricious" and contends the administration misinterpreted flag-display policies to justify the action. The filing states existing policies permit the National Park Service to fly flags that provide historical context, which the NPS Pride flag had done for years at Christopher Park. An NPS-sanctioned Pride flag was removed during the night of February 8 with no notice; NPS later cited new January guidance limiting flags to the U.S. flag and other authorized flags. Activists and elected officials subsequently raised the Pride flag and thousands gathered at the monument.

Read at LGBTQ Nation