Thousands of demonstrators gathered around New York City’s Stonewall Inn on Saturday, a week after President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily banning immigration to the United States from seven predominantly Muslim countries. That ban was temporarily blocked by a federal judge on Friday evening.
The rally, organized by the Lambda Independent Democrats, was for LGBTQ New Yorkers and their allies to protest the ban. The Huffington Post reported that the rally was sponsored by more than a dozen advocacy groups and some local politicians. Stonewall is the site of a six-day skirmish between cops and LGBTQ individuals in 1969 that’s considered a major turning point in LGBTQ civil rights activism.
Rally participants and journalists shared highlights from the protest on social media:
The Trump administration has also been laying the groundwork for stripping LGBTQ individuals of their civil rights. On Wednesday, the draft of an executive order ostensibly having to do with “religious freedom,” made its way to the press. The order describes possible ways for the new administration to diminish anti-discrimination laws designed to protect LGBTQ individuals. The same order, if realized, would allow some private companies to opt out of their current obligation to provide contraception coverage as part of employee health care plans. (You can read the entire four-page leaked document here.)
Many more anti-Trump and anti-ban resistance actions are taking place throughout the country this weekend too.