Today, President Obama officially designated the Stonewall National Monument, which will protect the area where, on June 28, 1969, a community's uprising in response to a police raid sparked the modern LGBT civil rights movement in the United States.
The new Stonewall National Monument will permanently protect Christopher Park, a historic community park at the intersection of Christopher Street, West 4th Street and Grove Street directly across from the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. The monument's boundary encompasses approximately 7.7 acres of land, including Christopher Park, the Stonewall Inn, and the surrounding streets and sidewalks that were the site of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising.
The designation will create the first official National Park Service unit dedicated to telling the story of LGBT Americans, just days before the one year anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision guaranteeing marriage equality in all 50 states.
In celebration of the designation and of New York Pride this weekend, the White House, in coordination with the National Park Foundation and the Outdoor Advertising Association of America has released the following video that will played on billboards in Times Square on Saturday, June 25, beginning at noon: