First They Erased Trans People... Now Bisexuals Have Been Scrubbed from Stonewall National Monument

In a creeping spread of erasure, the Stonewall National Monument's website eradicated mention of transgender people in February. Then bisexual people disappeared from the site's text, as well.

Journalist Erin Reed – who runs the independent Erin in the Morning site – reported on the site's further eradication of sexual and gender minorities.

"Key historical and cultural pages associated with the Stonewall site have been updated to describe the uprising as a milestone for 'gay and lesbian rights,' quietly removing any mention of bisexual or transgender individuals," Reed reported.

"The changes were not limited to the front page," the writeup went on to note. "In the 'History and Culture' section, the page once indicated 'Stonewall was a milestone for LGBTQ civil rights that provided momentum for a movement.' Then it was changed to 'Stonewall was a milestone for LGB civil rights that provided momentum for a movement' by the Trump administration. Now, the page says that it was a milestone for 'gay and lesbian' civil rights.

"Likewise, the page now reads that living 'openly as a member of the Stonewall comunity |SIC| was a violation of law,' rather than living as an openly LGBTQ+ person, as it had previously read," Reed goes on to detail.

Reed recalled that "Stonewall was heavily led by transgender and gender-nonconforming leaders like Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P Johnson, and Zazu Nova," and went on to point out that "Brenda Howard, a bisexual rights activist often referred to as 'the mother of Pride,' helped organize the rally that became the Christopher Street Liberation Day March on the first anniversary of the uprising.

"Both transgender and bisexual people have long viewed Stonewall as a civil rights milestone – and for good reason," Reed went on to write. "Living openly as either in the 1960s carried enormous risk, and both communities were targeted in the police raid that sparked the movement."

The eradication of trans history from the monument was not restricted to text at the website when, last month, the annual display of Pride flags at the park associated with the monument lacked any transgender or Progress Pride flags, consisting only of classic six-color Pride flags.

Visitors to the park brought flags of their own to help round out the monument's representation and restore an accurate reflection of history.

In a slight correction, the site itself was updated yet again after Reed's initial report. "After the publication of this article," a statement added to Reed's post notes, "bisexual people were added back to the front page of Stonewall National Monument, though they are still removed in the history and culture section."

It's impossible to say how much further the current administration's efforts at erasure will go. Will mention of gay and lesbian people vanish from the Stonewall monument next, removing the last references to the variegated – and oppressed – people who made the site famous in the first place?

It's a possibility Reed hinted at. "The recent removal of 'bisexual' from official Pride histories is a warning," the journalist wrote; "attacks on transgender people will never stop with us. They are part of a broader effort to narrow the scope of who is allowed to belong, to be seen, and even to be remembered."