Iconic Stonewall Inn Has Just Been Voted A New York City Landmark

What many consider to be the home of the modern day LGBT civil rights movement has just become a New York City landmark.

The Stonewall Inn. For many, even the name evokes the LGBT civil rights movement. Today, the New York City Landmark Preservation Committee granted the iconic spot landmark status. 

NBC New York reports that the “unanimous vote Tuesday marks the first time a site has been designated as a landmark in the city because of its significance to LGBT history.”

In recent years, the Inn has become the site where marches protesting denial of LGBT civil rights, as well as celebrations of historic victories – like the Supreme Court DOMA decision – have taken place.

Bloomberg adds that today’s vote “closes a loophole that might have allowed a redevelopment or demolition of the bar at 51-53 Christopher St., where a police raid on June 28, 1969, led to six days of sometimes-violent protests, the first major uprising against law enforcement harassment of gay men and women.”

“To me, the Stonewall Inn represents what Selma represents to the civil rights movement and what Seneca Falls represents to the women’s rights movement,” New York City Public Advocate Letitia James said before the commission. “It must be protected from rapacious developers who would destroy the history and what this place represents.”

Of course, there were many people, efforts, and events that preceded it, but it has gained an important place in history. The Stonewall Inn was designated a New York State landmark in 1999, and a federal landmark in 2000.

 

 

Image by InSapphoWeTrust via Flickr and a CC license