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LGBT Landmarks Added to National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places
On Tuesday, the National Park Service (NPS) announced that it would add two LGBT historic sites to the National Register of Historic Places.
“The Edificio Comunidad de Orgullo Gay de Puerto Rico served as the meeting hall for the first gay/lesbian organization established in Puerto Rico,” the NPS explained in a Facebook post. “The Furies Collective house in Washington, DC, was home to a lesbian feminist collective that in the early 1970’s created and led the debate over lesbians’ place in American society.”
According to The Washington Post, the Furies Collective is the first historic landmark to specifically highlight the role of lesbians in U.S. history.
Any day now, it is expected that President Obama will announce Stonewall as a national monument. The famous riot at the Stonewall Inn and neighboring Christopher Park in New York City in June 1969 ignited the worldwide movement for LGBT equality, raising the visibility of LGBT people and uniting our community.
“The road to civil rights is a long one, and adding these important places to the National Register will help recognize the LGBT communities’ fight for equality,” Kristen Brengel, vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, told The Washington Post. “It is fantastic that the National Park Service is acknowledging more LGBT sites, and we hope the administration will approve its first national park honoring LGBT history with Stonewall soon.”
HRC worked closely with members of the New York congressional delegation on legislation to make Stonewall the nation’s first landmark honoring LGBT history and had a number of meetings with administration officials to help them understand the importance of Stonewall in the telling of the American story. HRC members and supporters also took action, asking President Obama to designate Stonewall as a national monument.
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