WEST VILLAGE — A rainbow flag will fly permanently over the Stonewall Inn for the first time starting this week.
On Wednesday, LGBT activists will unveil the flag outside the historic gay bar on Christopher Street, which was designated a national monument by then-President Barack Obama last year.
The unveiling will coincide with the 30th anniversary of the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, when the AIDS Memorial Quilt was displayed on the National Mall for the first time, activist Michael Petrelis said.
“It is a victory for our Community to have these symbolic colors flying majestically over our Stonewall, designated as a National Monument by President Obama, even as our LGBTQ brothers and sisters are under attack by the current regime in power,” said Petrelis, who has long pushed for a flag at the site.
In 1969, the Inn was the site of a historic uprising against a police raid that marked a milestone in the fight for LGBTQ civil rights in the United States.
The flag will fly from a pole in the park across the street from the bar that is part of the national monument, a spokesman for the event said.
Wednesday’s event will be “the first time the rainbow flag has found a permanent home in NYC,” he added.
