President Trump's efforts at erasing Trans identity intensified this week as employees at the National Park Service were instructed to remove the "T" and "Q" from "LGBTQ" from all internal and external communications.

The change was first noticed on the website of the Stonewall National Monument; Trans people of color were integral to the events at Stonewall, which is widely viewed as the kickoff of the modern LGBTQ rights movement. The Stonewall National Monument is the first US national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history.

Reaction to that move was swift. New York City Councilmember Erik Bottcher wrote, "The Trump administration has erased transgender people from the Stonewall National Monument website. We will not allow them to erase the very existence of our siblings. We are one community!!"

But what most didn't realize is that the removal of the "T" and "Q" (for Transgender and Queer) extends to all National Park Service and Interior Department communications, raising concerns that the move could jeopardize future LGBTQ monuments and project work.

The Blade reached out to the National Park Service for comment on the Trans erasure and received a curt response that the agency is implementing Trump's executive order "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government," as well as agency directives to end all DEI initiatives.

The question being debated internally now, according to a knowledgeable source, is what to do with a massive LGBTQ Theme Study, which as of Feb. 14 was still available on the NPS website. In 2014, the Gill Foundation recognized an omission of historic LGBTQ sites in the nation's records, and the organization made a grant to the National Park Service to commission a first-of-its-kind LGBTQ Theme Study, which was published in 2016. It was a landmark project that represented major progress for the LGBTQ community in having our contributions included in the broader American story, something that is becoming increasingly difficult given efforts like "Don't Say Gay" laws that ban the teaching of LGBTQ topics in schools.

A source told the Blade that National Park Service communications staff suggested that removing chapters of the 2016 Theme Study that pertain to Transgender people might placate anti-Trans political appointees. But one employee pushed back on that, suggesting instead that the entire Theme Study be removed. Editing the document to remove one community's contributions and perspective violates the academic intent of the project, according to the source. A final decision on how to proceed is expected soon.

Meanwhile, a protest [was] planned for Friday, Feb. 14 at noon at Christopher Park in New York City (7th Ave. S. and Christopher Street). The protest [was] planned by staff at the Stonewall Inn.

"The Stonewall Inn and The Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative are outraged and appalled by the recent removal of the word 'transgender' from the Stonewall National Monument page on the National Park Service website," the groups said in a statement. "Let us be clear: Stonewall is transgender history. Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and countless other trans and gender-nonconforming individuals fought bravely, and often at great personal risk, to push back against oppressive systems. Their courage, sacrifice, and leadership were central to the resistance we now celebrate as the foundation of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement."

Reprinted with permission from the Washington Blade.