Stonewall Inn: Barack Obama designates site of 1969 riots first national monument for LGBTQ rights

The national monument will cover 7.7 acres in Greenwich Village

AP

New York City’s Stonewall Inn has been a critical site of LGBTQ political and cultural memory for five decades, and it is now the United States’ first national monument to commemorate gay rights.

President Barack Obama made the announcement of the designation on Friday.

“Stonewall will be our first national monument to tell the story of the struggle for LGBT rights,” Mr Obama said in a video announcement. “I believe our national parks should reflect the full story of our country: the richness and diversity and uniquely American spirit that has always defined us. That we are stronger together; that out of many, we are one.”

The Stonewall Monument will include the Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park, and the surrounding 7.7 acre area in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village that became the site of the 1969 riots - and resistance to constant raids and attacks by NYPD on the LGBT community - that sparked the Gay Rights movement.

“Before the 1960s almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender person was illegal,” the National Park Service says on its website for the Stonewall National Monument. “New York City laws against homosexual activities were particularly harsh. The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969 is a milestone in the quest for LGBT civil rights and provided momentum for a movement.”

In a press conference announcing security measures being taken by the NYPD, Commissioner Bill Bratton said that he did not feel the police had to apologise for their brutal treatment of LGBTQ people in recent history.

“There is no denying that out of that terrible experience came so much good,” Mr Bratton told reporters. “It was the tipping point, if you will. So I think we should all celebrate that out of that terrible experience, a lot of good came.”

“An apology? I don’t think so. I don't think that's necessary,” he added. “The apology is all that's occurred since then.”

New York City has stepped up its police presence in the area surrounding the Stonewall Inn in the wake of the Orlando shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub, that took the lives of 49 people.

In his announcement, Mr Obama said that the tragedy in Orlando is evidence that LGBTQ people still “face acts of violence, discrimination, and hate”, noting that “LGBT people of colour are especially at risk”.

“The Administration is committed to continuing the fight for dignity, acceptance and equal rights for all Americans - no matter who they are or who they love.”