Pride flags vandalized at Stonewall monument

During Pride month each June, Stonewall National Monument volunteers put up 250 LGBTQ Pride flags on the black iron decorative picket fence that rings the Christopher Street park.

On Sunday, the volunteers found at least 70 of those flags torn down and damaged in what the New York Police Department‘s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating as a hate crime.

The Stonewall National Monument, the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ history, was dedicated in 2016. It encompasses a park across the street from the Stonewall Inn, a bar where patrons fought back against a police raid on June 28, 1969, and helped spark the contemporary LGBTQ rights movement.

According to park volunteer Steven Menendez, speaking with WNYW in New York, flags are often pulled off the railing by partygoers late at night. But when Menendez woke Sunday morning and arrived he found 68 flags damaged — including 33 broken in one section — he said he was alarmed.

“We have so much hatred and anger in the air right now,” Menendez told WNYW. “We really need to reverse that and replace it with love compassion and acceptance.”

BRODY LEVESQUE