Watch: Pres. Obama Designates Stonewall Inn Nation’s First Monument Commemorating LGBT Civil Rights

‘They Stood Up and Spoke Out,’ Obama Says of the Citizens at Stonewall in 1969

As promised, President Barack Obama on Friday officially designated New York City’s historic Stonewall Inn a national monument, making it the first to commemorate fight for LGBT civil rights.

In a nearly four-minute video he narrates,” President Obama says, “they stood up and spoke out,” speaking about the citizens on June 28, 1969 who met and responded to police harassment delivered under the guise of enforcing an unconstitutional law barring the sale of alcohol to homosexuals. 

“The riots became protests, the protests became a movement. The movement ultimately became an integral part of America.”

Politico reports the White House will use billboards in Times Square on Saturday to show a video about Stonewall and the LGBT civil rights movement.

“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,” Pres. Obama says. Politico observed that statement echoes “Hillary Clinton’s latest campaign slogan. ‘That out of many, we are one.'”

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The official designation comes less than two weeks after the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in modern history, at an Orlando gay nightclub where a terrorist shot and killed 49 people, and wounded another 53. It was both an anti-gay hate crime and the worst act of terrorism since 9/11.

It also comes almost 47 years to the day of the Stonewall riots.