Gay activist wants to put up cameras for 24-hour surveillance of Stonewall Monument - LGBTQ Nation

"Michael Petrelis, an activist and co-founding member of ACT UP, launched a GoFundMe campaign for the project. According to a description on the campaign's website, Petrelis is aiming to raise $5,000 to purchase five cameras, at a cost of $1,000 each, and to cover streaming costs. The cameras, he says, will be installed on private homes and small businesses around Christopher Park."

"Petrelis launched the campaign to fund cameras around the site on February 15, a week after the National Park Service (NPS) approved a Pride flag that had flown at the monument for years was removed without notice and in the dead of night. A spokesperson for the NPS, which manages the Stonewall Monument, later said that new government-wide guidance under the Trump administration mandates that 'only the U.S. flag and other congressionally or departmentally authorized flags are flown on NPS-managed flagpoles.'"

"In 2016, President Barack Obama officially designated the land a national monument commemorating the June 1969 uprising at the Stonewall Inn that sparked the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. The Stonewall National Monument is the first and only U.S. National Monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ rights."

Michael Petrelis, an ACT UP co-founding member, initiated a fundraising campaign to install surveillance cameras around Christopher Park at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City. The $5,000 goal aims to purchase five cameras at $1,000 each and cover streaming costs. The campaign was launched after the National Park Service removed a Pride flag that had flown at the monument for years, citing new Trump administration guidance restricting flags on NPS-managed flagpoles to the U.S. flag and congressionally authorized flags. City officials and LGBTQ+ activists quickly restored the original rainbow Pride flag designed by Gilbert Baker. The Stonewall National Monument, designated in 2016, commemorates the 1969 uprising that sparked the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.

Read at LGBTQ Nation