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Cuomo Announces Plan for NYC Monument to Orlando Victims

 Gov. Andrew Cuomo
Gov. Andrew Cuomo
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Mario Tama/Getty Images

 WEST VILLAGE — A memorial to LGBT victims of hate — including the 49 killed in Orlando this month — is being created in New York City.

A commission made up of gay rights organizations like the Gay Men's Health Crisis, the Hetrick-Martin Institute, the Anti-Violence Project and the LGBT Center, along with former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and transgender rights activist Melissa Sklarz, has been formed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to explore its design and placement.

"Sometimes from the greatest pain comes the greatest progress," Cuomo said at the LGBT Center on W. 13th Street Sunday, speaking of the attack in Orlando.

"Very few social movements don't have pain, don't have hardship, don't have death."

The 10-person commission will select the artist and the design, and the monument will likely be in Christopher Park in front of the Stonewall Inn, in Hudson River Park south of Chelsea Piers or in Battery Park City "in the gaze of the Statue of Liberty," Cuomo said.

Cuomo committed up to $1 million in funding for the monument.

"We want this terrible event remembered," he said of Orlando.

"We want the lesson learned so it never happens again."

Cuomo also announced a series of television ads that began airing on Sunday in New York, North Carolina, Mississippi and Texas to promote New York's diversity. They will continue throughout the summer.

"We invite everyone to come to the great state of New York where we celebrate diversity," Cuomo said.

"We wish you peace, we wish you strength... Whatever you need, we are there for you."