You've Been Misled

Case 015 · Government memory

They edited the monument's history
with a deletion.

In January 2025, the National Park Service described Stonewall as a milestone in “LGBTQ+ civil rights.” In February, the same sentence said “LGB.” “Transgender” and “queer” had disappeared.12

January–February 2025Archived before-and-after pages

The established record

Archived versions of the same official page show three direct edits: “LGBTQ+ person” became “LGB person,” “LGBTQ+ civil rights” became “LGB civil rights,” and “LGBTQ+ Flags” became “LGB Flags.”12 A contemporaneous NPS fact sheet used the revised term repeatedly.3

This was not an old page expiring

The January 15 and February 20 captures preserve the same Stonewall National Monument homepage with altered wording.12 The location, subject, and surrounding sentences remained. The identity terms changed.

The exact edit

Before: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ+) person.
After: lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person.

Why Stonewall makes the edit matter

President Obama designated the monument under the Antiquities Act to preserve and interpret the events around the Stonewall uprising and their place in American civil-rights history.4 The proclamation itself names lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. Editing the identities named in the official interpretation changes how the government describes the people whose history the site exists to preserve.

That does not mean every transgender reference vanished from every Park Service page. It means this particular national monument's central public description was narrowed, and the before-and-after record makes the narrowing visible.

The administration stated its rule

Executive Order 14168 directed the government to recognize two sexes and required agencies to remove material that, in the order's terms, promoted “gender ideology.”5 The Stonewall page does not name the employee or approval chain responsible for these exact edits, so this page does not pretend to know who pressed the keys.

The accountability question does not require mind-reading: should a government preserve an uncomfortable history as it happened, or rewrite the public description until it fits the current administration's vocabulary?

Established

The exact NPS before-and-after wording, the revised NPS fact sheet, Stonewall's statutory historical purpose, and the administration's government-wide terminology policy.

Not established

The individual editor, a complete approval chain, removal of all transgender history from NPS, or a change to the underlying events themselves.

Receipts 001–005

The deletion, preserved

Receipt 001 · Archived NPS pageStonewall homepage before the editJanuary 15, 2025 · LGBTQ+Receipt 002 · Archived NPS pageStonewall homepage after the editFebruary 20, 2025 · LGBReceipt 003 · National Park ServiceStonewall National Monument fact sheetFebruary 14, 2025 · revised terminologyReceipt 004 · Presidential proclamationEstablishment of Stonewall National MonumentJune 24, 2016 · purpose, history, and interpretation mandateReceipt 005 · Federal RegisterExecutive Order 14168January 20, 2025 · government-wide definitions and directives

Claim map

What each record carries

Receipts 001–002
The exact before-and-after text on the same official homepage.
Receipt 003
The Park Service's contemporaneous use of the narrowed terminology.
Receipt 004
The monument proclamation's stated history, preservation, and interpretation purpose.
Receipt 005
The administration's definitions and removal directive; it does not identify the page's editor.
Not established
A named editor, complete causal chain, or service-wide deletion of every transgender reference.

Last updated: August 23, 2026.