Federal, state and local officials on
Monday dedicated New York City's Stonewall Inn as the first national
monument honoring the LGBT rights movement.
President Barack Obama on Friday
announced that he was “designating the Stonewall National Monument
as the newest addition to America's national park system.”
The monument includes Christopher Park,
the Stonewall Inn and the surrounding area that was part of the 1969
Stonewall uprising.
Historians often credit the June 28,
1969 police raid of the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village as a major
flashpoint for the gay rights movement. While such raids at the time
were common at gay bars, patrons on this night, many of whom were
drag queens, resisted arrest.
“Today we welcome Stonewall and
Christopher Park into the family of the Grand Canyon, of Yosemite, of
the Statue of Liberty, of America's most important places,” John
Jarvis, director of the National Park Service, said while standing in
front of the Stonewall Inn.
Valerie Jarrett, special adviser to the
president, also spoke at the dedication ceremony.
“The Stonewall uprising awakened a
national consciousness to the humanity of LGBT equality. It became a
profound inflection point in our nation's history,” she said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the
recent mass shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub “reminded us what
it means to keep fighting.”
“If an Orlando can happen in this
country, we are far from done,” he
said.