Obama Designates First Nat’l Monument To LGBT Movement At Stonewall

President Barack Obama on Friday designated the nation’s first monument to the gay rights movement, commemorating the historic Stonewall Uprising in New York City.

The new Stonewall National Monument memorializes the explosive, six-day-long protests that erupted in 1969 after police conducted one of its frequent raids on the Stonewall Inn gay bar. As Obama said in a proclamation designating the monument, the uprising “is considered by many to be the catalyst that launched the modern LGBT civil rights movement.”

The monument will sit inside Christopher Park, a Manhattan green space across from Stonewall Inn that served as a gathering place during the riots. It remains a poignant site for the LGBT community, where celebratory marches were held after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide and hundreds gathered to mourn after the recent mass shooting at an Orlando, Florida gay club.

As Obama put it in the proclamation, “Hard-fought civil rights victories in courtrooms and statehouses across the country set the stage for victories in the Supreme Court that would have seemed unthinkable to those who rose up in Greenwich Village in June 1969.”

Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park and portions of the surrounding Greenwich Village neighborhood were designated National Historic Landmarks in 2000 for their central role in the history of the LGBT civil rights movement.