Visibility is not vanity — it’s survival. And right now, it’s under attack.
In 2025, under the guise of “streamlining” and “restoring tradition,” the Trump administration launched a full-scale erasure of LGBTQ+ history across government platforms. From quietly rewriting websites to eliminating entire archives, the message is clear: queer people are being written out of America’s story.
Stonewall Isn’t Safe
In March, the National Park Service made silent but significant edits to the Stonewall National Monument website. Mentions of “transgender,” “queer,” and the broader “LGBTQ+” acronym were removed. Stonewall — an event led by trans women of color, drag queens, and queer rebels — was reduced to a sanitized narrative about “gay rights.”
This isn’t accidental. It’s historical revisionism. The kind that signals to every queer and trans person: you don’t belong in this version of the country.
DEI: Deleted
The Stonewall edits are part of a sweeping policy shift. In early 2024, Trump signed an executive order to eliminate DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) initiatives across all federal agencies. What followed?
- Over 26,000 images flagged for deletion at the Pentagon
- Erasure of photos of Black, Latinx, and queer service members
- Historical archives stripped of context and cultural relevance
- Even the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad site faced quiet revisions
This is more than “culture war” rhetoric. It’s administrative violence.
Erasure Is the Strategy
The cost of this kind of erasure isn’t just symbolic. It’s psychological.
When young queer people can’t find themselves in textbooks, national monuments, or military records, they internalize the belief that they don’t matter. That their struggles, their contributions, and their identities are peripheral — disposable.
As Karla Jay, a Stonewall veteran, told them.us:
“LGBTQ+ rights feel precarious despite existing nondiscrimination laws. The system isn’t going to protect our memory — we have to.”
Why We Must Speak Up
Erasing LGBTQ+ history isn’t just about the past — it’s about controlling the future.
If our stories disappear, so do the precedents for progress. So do the arguments for policy change. So does the proof that queer people have always been here, building, surviving, fighting, and loving.
At Queer Reflection, we believe in the power of memory as a tool for empathy. And we refuse to let that memory be rewritten.
What You Can Do
- Share this post — visibility is resistance.
- Call your representatives — demand DEI protections and historical transparency.
- Support organizations like GLAAD, Lambda Legal, and The National LGBTQ Task Force.
- Tell your story — online, in classrooms, in community spaces. Document it. Archive it. Say it out loud.
Because history belongs to all of us. And we will not be erased.
