Posted by Melanie Nathan, September 18, 2015.
Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-10), National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), city and state elected officials, advocacy groups and community members are launching a new campaign to help create a national park for Stonewall—the site of one of the country’s most pivotal uprisings for equality. If created, it would be the nation’s first national parks site honoring LGBT history.
The press conference to kick off the campaign will be held outside of the historic Stonewall Inn and Christopher Park, where protestors gathered in June 1969 for a week-long uprising in an effort to secure equal rights for the LGBT community.
Two-thirds of America’s more than 400 national parks are dedicated to sites of cultural and historic significance. Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York tells the story of the first Women’s Rights Convention held there in July 1848, and their struggle for civil rights and equality. Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail in Alabama, a national park site, traces the march led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the struggle for equal voting rights for African-Americans. A national park for Stonewall would tell the story of the LGBT community’s fight for equal rights in America.
Confirmed speakers include:
• U.S. Congressman Jerrold Nadler
• Whitney Tome, NPCA Director of Diversity & Inclusion
• Martha Shelley, Stonewall Uprising Participant
• New York City Department of Parks & Recreation Commissioner
Mitchell Silver
• Manhattan Borough President Gail Brewer
• New York State Senator Brad Hoylman
• Manhattan City Council Member, District 3 Corey Johnson
• Manhattan Community Board 2 Chairman Tobi Bergman
• Cortney Worrall, NPCA Northeast Regional Director
Learn more at: www.npca.org/stonewall or join the conversation online with #NatlParkForStonewall.
Reblogged this on Fairy JerBear's Queer World News, Views & More From The City Different – Santa Fe, NM and commented:
A recognition of the importance of Stonewall in the history of the LGBTQ movement…
Congratulations to all Americans. Of international importance, Stonewall’s noise was heard throughout the Western world and its inspiration, contagious.