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The Stonewall Inn historic site is getting a new visitors center

2022-06-24T15:30:00-04:00

The first visitor center within the national park system dedicated to L.G.B.T.Q. history will honor and explore the history of the 1969 Stonewall uprising, a galvanizing moment in the fight for equality, the center’s managers announced on Tuesday. The visitor center is being funded with donations, and a groundbreaking ceremony will take place on Friday. The 3,700-square-foot space will include exhibitions, in-person and virtual tours and art displays that examine the uprising and its legacy.

The visitors center will be located at the address adjacent to the bar, which had sat vacant for some time. Plans for an expanded presence at the site, which includes a sculpture installation by George Segal, the bar, and Christopher Park, have been floated around since it was officially declared a national monument by President Obama in 2016. Anne Marie Gothard, president of PRIDE LIVE (the nonprofit behind the visitors center project), shared her hopes with the TIMES that it would garner more interest for similar preservation efforts at LGBTQ historic sites across the country.

“Our goal is to create a place that honors both the bravery and courage of the past five decades of the movement while also motivating the next generation of leaders to take up the fight, because we know that there is more work to be done when it comes to full equality.”

Examining the history and importance of four LGBTQ sites newly listed by the National Trust for Historic Places

2022-06-17T18:13:00-04:00

Preserving spaces are integral to maintaining America's gay communities and keeping the memory of their members' hard work in establishing physical sites of resistance in the face of legal repression, violence, and generational intolerance. Terms like "Gay power" convey the desire for visibility in those spaces that have evolved due to their hard-fought existence. Today they serve as a rallying cry for different scholarly interventions initiated to protect the important story of queer history in the United States.

In honor of the slate of Pride celebrations taking place in June, the National Trust for Historic Preservation continues to expand on the documentary research of these sites. Thanks to the National Park Service's influential 2016 Theme Study that identified several new locations for nomination to join the group's two official heritage designations, four new sites have been added to the list since its original publication.

The cover of the publication LGBTQ America. Design...

Stonewall Inn formally declared as national monument

2016-06-24T15:10:00-04:00

On Friday, President Obama formally [declared] the Greenwich Village bar and its surrounding area the Stonewall National Monument, and creating the first National Park Service unit dedicated to the gay rights movement. According to the White House, the monument designation will consist of 7.7 acres, protecting the tavern, Christopher Park across the street, and several other streets and sidewalks where spontaneous protests were held for equal rights in 1969.

Obama administration to designate Stonewall as America's first LGBT memorial

2016-05-05T18:41:00-04:00

New York's iconic Stonewall Inn, where the modern gay rights movement took root, will become the first national monument honoring the history of gays and lesbians in the U.S. under a proposal President Barack Obama is preparing to approve. Designating the small swath of land will mark a major act of national recognition for gay rights advocates and their struggles over the last half-century.

Originally built as stables in the 1840s, the Stonewall Inn was the site of historic riots after police raided the LGBT bar on June 28, 1969. While such raids were then common, that night the bar-goers fought back – in the process helping to catalyze the LGBT liberation movement.

The news was timed to coincide with LGBT Pride month, which is held in June each year in commemoration of Stonewall. While the article specifies the monument as honoring the history of gays and lesbians, it's important to note the pivotal role transgender individuals played in the uprising.

According to AP, the Obama administration is considering including nearby Christopher Park in the historic designation.

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