Stonewall visitor center will be dedicated to LGBTQ history

NEW YORK (AP) — A visitor center dedicated to telling the story of LGBTQ rights movement will open next door to the Stonewall Inn, according to an announcement Tuesday by the nonprofit that will manage the center in partnership with the National Park Service.

The groundbreaking for the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center in New York City's Greenwich Village neighborhood will take place Friday, with the center expected to open in summer 2024, said Ann Marie Gothard, board president of Pride Live, an LGBTQ advocacy organization.

“The opening of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center is a remarkable moment in the history of Stonewall,” Gothard said. “We honor all those who came before us, most especially the queer people fighting for equality at the Stonewall riots.”

The Stonewall National Monument became the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ history when it was dedicated in 2016 across the street from the Stonewall Inn, where patrons fought back against a police raid on June 28, 1969, and helped spark the contemporary LGBTQ rights movement.

The Stonewall rebellion is commemorated every year with Pride marches in cities across the U.S. and the world.

This year's Pride Month in New York kicked off June 1 with the dedication of a rainbow flag at the Stonewall monument, the first rainbow flag to fly daily on federal land. The ceremony followed a yearslong battle by activists to ensure that a rainbow flag would fly on federal land at the Stonewall monument.

The 7.7-acre monument includes the park known Christopher Park, across from the Stonewall, but does not include the Stonewall itself, which is still a bar. The visitor center will be housed in the storefront adjoining the Stonewall, which was part of the bar in 1969.

Gothard said that when...