The Stonewall Inn tavern is the site of the famous 1969 riots that subsequently sparked the LGBT rights movement across the world.
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Standing in front of Christopher Park, the narrow green wedge opposite the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, and flanked by almost a dozen government officials and activists, the lawmakers said they would introduce legislation for a national park there. Celebrating there just made sense.
Over 40 years after a police raid on the watering hole pushed the gay community over the edge due to harassment, U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D) and U.S. Sen.
National parks can only be created by an act of Congress. They include sites of cultural or historic importance. In Seneca Falls, New York, Women’s Rights National Historical Park tells the story of the primary Women’s Rights Convention held there in July 1848. But in order for the park to become a national landmark, it must go through a lengthy review process, and Congress would have to approve the plan.
“When that [Supreme Court] decision came down, all of us instinctively ran to Stonewall”, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney told the New York Times this weekend.
“We are making a formal request to President Obama, asking him to designate this space as the first national park site dedicated to the LGBTQ history”.
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“I’m] not terribly hopeful that my Republican colleagues will rush to celebrate the freedom that was fought for at Stonewall”, said Nadler, which is why the lawmakers are focusing their efforts on the White House. The scholars are expected to release recommendations in 2016.
