President Obama is poised to declare the first national monument recognizing the contributions of the nation’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, singling out a sliver of green space and part of the surrounding Greenwich Village neighborhood as the birthplace of America’s modern gay liberation movement.
While most national monuments have highlighted iconic wild landscapes or historic sites from centuries ago, this reflects the country’s diversity of terrain and topography in a different vein: It would be the first national monument anchored by a dive bar, surrounded by a warren of narrow streets that long has been regarded the historic center of gay cultural life in New York.
Federal officials, including Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, National Park Service director Jonathan B. Jarvis and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., will hold a listening session May 9 to solicit feedback on the proposal. Barring a last-minute complication — officials are investigating the history of the land title — Obama is prepared to designate the area, which commemorates gay pride, part of the National Park Service as soon as next month.
The protests at the site, which lasted for several days, started early June 28, 1969, after police raided the Stonewall Inn, which was frequented by men. While patrons of the bar, which is still in operation today, had complied in the past with these crackdowns, that time it sparked a spontaneous riot by bystanders and those who had been detained.
While national monument designations are partly symbolic, backers of the move said it could bolster the fight against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, which led to the landmark 2015 Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.
