Written by Trending on Billboard
Adam Lambert is speaking out against the removal of the Pride flag at Stonewall National Monument in New York City.
In early January, the Trump administration replaced the rainbow-colored flag — a symbol of LGBTQ+ rights and inclusion — with an American flag at the National Park Service–run site in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.
“Stonewall is not just a park, it is sacred historical ground in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights,” Lambert, a founding partner of Pride Live and the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center (SNMVC), wrote on Instagram Thursday (Feb. 12).
The singer continued, “The Pride flag is not a political prop; it is a symbol of visibility, resilience, and the countless lives that have fought, and continue to fight, for dignity and equality. Removing it sends a message that our history and our humanity are negotiable. They are not. We were here. We are here. And we will continue to be.”
The Stonewall National Monument, located across the street from the Stonewall Inn — a historic bar known as the origin point of the LGBTQ rights movement — is a national civil rights landmark established in 2016 by President Barack Obama.
The Pride flag was taken down on Feb. 10 under new guidance from the Trump administration. Weeks earlier, the Department of the Interior had issued federal guidance prohibiting the display of “non-agency” flags in the National Park System.
On the same day Lambert shared his thoughts on social media, local elected officials raised the Pride flag once again at the Stonewall National Monument.
Lambert wasn’t the only artist to speak out against the Pride flag removal. Gracie Abrams also made her opinion clear by resharing comedian Benito Skinner’s post about it being “Demonic” on her Instagram Story on Feb. 10.
Recently elected NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement on X that he was “outraged” by the seizure of the flag.
New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history,” he wrote. “Our city has a duty not just to honor this legacy, but to live up to it.”
