WEST VILLAGE — The Stonewall Inn became a national monument Monday.
President Barack Obama announced the designation of the famous bar, the park in front of it and the surrounding area on Friday, after years of LGBTQ organizing and activism by local West Village groups and elected officials.
Gay, lesbian and transgender New Yorkers fought back against a police raid at the Stonewall Inn on June 28, 1969, when the bar was one of the few places in New York City where gay people could be open about their identity.
"No place else could we dance slowly," said Tommy Lanagan Schmidt, a gay man who fought police at Stonewall in 1969 and took part in Monday's ceremony.
"Up 'til then, we were regarded as total sexual deviants."
Schmidt introduced Obama's senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, who hailed the designation as a way to "ensure that all of our nation's parks tell a full inclusive story of the nation's history."
Jarrett noted that when Obama was elected eight years ago, marriage was legal for same-sex couples in only two states. Now, after a Supreme Court decision last summer, it is legal nationwide.
An honor to be w/ trailblazer Edie Windsor whose efforts bent the arc of moral universe one step closer to justice pic.twitter.com/hykalSWfLN
— Valerie Jarrett (@vj44) June 27, 2016
New Yorkers and tourists flocked to Stonewall last summer to celebrate that decision, as they did to mourn the death of a gay man shot on 8th Street in 2013 and the 49 people killed at a gay club in Orlando earlier this month.
The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission gave it historic landmark status last year — the first site in the city to be recognized for its historical, not architectural, significance — and Gov. Andrew Cuomo has designated it as a state landmark as well.
The next step, Sen. Kristen Gillibrand noted, is for Congress to vote on a bill, introduced by Rep. Jerry Nadler to elevate the monument to a full-fledged national park.
New York preservationists have also turned their focus to Julius' Bar down the street, pushing for the city to grant that watering hole historic landmark status as well. The state did so earlier this year.
