[United States Statutes at Large, Volume 130, 114th Congress, 2nd Session]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

 
Proclamation 9465 of June 24, 2016

Establishment of the Stonewall National Monument

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Christopher Park, a historic community park located immediately across
the street from the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood
of New York City (City), is a place for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender (LGBT) community to assemble for marches and parades,
expressions of grief and anger, and celebrations of victory and joy. It
played a key role in the events often referred to as the Stonewall
Uprising or Rebellion, and has served as an important site for the LGBT
community both before and after those events.
As one of the only public open spaces serving Greenwich Village west of
6th Avenue, Christopher Park has long been central to the life of the
neighborhood and to its identity as an LGBT-friendly community. The park
was created after a large fire in 1835 devastated an overcrowded
tenement on the site. Neighborhood residents persuaded the City to
condemn the approximately 0.12-acre triangle for public open space in
1837. By the 1960s, Christopher Park had become a popular destination
for LGBT youth, many of whom had run away from or been kicked out of
their homes. These youth and others who had been similarly oppressed
felt they had little to lose when the community clashed with the police
during the Stonewall Uprising.
In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, a riot broke out in
response to a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, at the time one of the
City's best known LGBT bars. Over the course of the next several days,
more demonstrations and riots occurred in the surrounding neighborhood
including Christopher Park. During these days, because of its strategic
location across from the bar, Christopher Park served as a gathering
place, refuge, and platform for the community to voice its demand for
LGBT civil rights. The Stonewall Uprising is considered by many to be
the catalyst that launched the modern LGBT civil rights movement. From
this place and time, building on the work of many before, the Nation
started the march--not yet finished--toward securing equality and
respect for LGBT people.
Christopher Park and its environs have remained a key gathering place
for the LGBT community. For example, on June 26, 2015, within moments of
the issuance of the Supreme Court's historic ruling in Obergefell v.
Hodges, LGBT people headed to Christopher Park to cele

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brate the Court's recognition of a constitutional right to same-sex
marriage. A few days later, Governor Cuomo continued that celebration by
officiating at the marriage of two gay men directly outside the
Stonewall Inn. Within minutes of the recent news of the murders of 49
people in a nightclub in Orlando, Florida--one of the most deadly
shootings in American history--LGBT people and their supporters in New
York headed again to Christopher Park to mourn, heal, and stand together
in unity for the fundamental values of equality and dignity that define
us as a country.
Today, Christopher Park is surrounded by brick sidewalks and a
nineteenth century wrought-iron fence with gated openings. Educational
signs about the Stonewall Uprising are found near the large arched main
entryway. Divided into two halves, the western side of the park is open
to the public on a daily basis and contains a small plaza lined with
brick pavers and benches. George Segal's sculpture, ``Gay Liberation,''
stands as a focal point of the plaza. The sculpture was commissioned in
1979 on the tenth anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, and its
installation in 1992 cemented Christopher Park's role as a destination
for those wishing to understand the significance of the Stonewall
Uprising. The eastern half of the park contains two structures erected
in 1936: a statue of Civil War General Philip Sheridan, and a memorial
flagstaff and plaque honoring Colonel Ephraim Elmer Ellsworth, an
officer with the New York Fire Zouaves during the Civil War.
Across the street from Christopher Park is the target of the June 28,
1969, police raid, the Stonewall Inn (51-53 Christopher Street),
originally built in 1843 and 1846 as two separate two-story horse
stables. In 1930, the two buildings were combined into one commercial
space with a new single exterior facade. In 1934, the first-floor space
opened as a restaurant called Bonnie's Stonewall Inn, which served the
neighborhood for over 30 years. The restaurant closed in 1966, but was
reopened in 1967 as an LGBT bar called the Stonewall Inn.
The streets and sidewalks in the neighborhood surrounding Christopher
Park and the Stonewall Inn are an integral part of the neighborhood's
historic character and played a significant role in the Stonewall
Uprising. The narrow streets bend, wrap back on themselves, and
otherwise create directional havoc. In the early 1800s, the residents
rejected the City's attempts to enlarge the neighborhood streets and
align them with the City's grid plan, and the extension of Seventh
Avenue South through the area in the early 1900s only added confusion.
During the Stonewall Uprising, this labyrinthine street pattern helped
the LGBT demonstrators, who knew the neighborhood, to evade riot-control
police, who were not from the local precinct.
Viewed from Christopher Park's central location, this historic
landscape--the park itself, the Stonewall Inn, the streets and sidewalks
of the surrounding neighborhood--reveals the story of the Stonewall
Uprising, a watershed moment for LGBT civil rights and a transformative
event in the Nation's civil rights movement on par with the 1848 Women's
Rights Convention at Seneca Falls and the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery March
for voting rights in its role in energizing a broader community to
demand equal rights.
Although the 1960s were a time of social and political change that
brought greater freedom to many segments of society, these new-found
freedoms did not extend to members of the LGBT community. They

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faced increased oppression and criminal prosecution even for being
physically intimate with consensual partners. In New York City, LGBT
people were frequently arrested for acts such as same-sex dancing and
kissing and wearing clothes of the perceived opposite gender. In some
States, adults of the same sex caught having consensual sex in their own
home could receive sentences of up to life in prison or be confined to a
mental institution, where they faced horrific procedures, such as shock
therapy, castration, and lobotomies. LGBT Americans lived their lives in
secrecy for fear of losing their jobs, being evicted from their homes,
or being arrested. For LGBT people of color or living in poverty, life
was especially challenging.
For over a century, Greenwich Village has attracted Americans of all
kinds with an interest in political activism and nonconformity. By the
1930s, Greenwich Village was home to a significant LGBT community.
Despite the aggressive anti-LGBT policies and practices that emerged in
the City in the 1950s and 60s, a variety of bars, nightclubs,
restaurants, hotels, and private clubs catered to an LGBT clientele.
Many establishments lasted only a few months before police raided them
and shut them down, a practice that intensified during mayoral election
years such as 1969.
The police frequently raided LGBT bars for illegally selling alcoholic
drinks to ``homosexuals.'' LGBT bars operated by organized crime
syndicates often paid off members of the police force and in return
received tips about when raids were planned. As part of a crackdown on
LGBT bars in June 1969, the Public Morals squad of Manhattan's First
Police Division raided the Stonewall Inn on June 24, 1969, confiscated
its liquor, and arrested its employees. The Stonewall Inn reopened the
next day. Having made only minimal impact with this raid, the police
decided to plan a surprise raid for the following Friday night or
Saturday morning, when the bar would be crowded.
On June 28, 1969, undercover police officers raided the Stonewall Inn
around 1:15 a.m., after one of them witnessed the illegal sale of
alcohol. Customers resisted the police by refusing to show
identification or go into a bathroom so that a police officer could
verify their sex. As police officers began making arrests, the remaining
customers gathered outside instead of dispersing as they had in the
past. They cheered when friends emerged from the bar under police
escort, and they shouted ``Gay Power!'' and ``We Want Freedom!''. As
word spread, the gathering grew in size and a riot ultimately ensued.
Around 3:00 a.m., the City's riot-control force appeared, and started to
push the crowd away from the Stonewall Inn. But the crowd refused to
disperse. Groups of demonstrators retreated to nearby streets, only to
cut back and regroup near the Stonewall Inn and Christopher Park. The
riot finally abated about 4:30 a.m., but during the next week several
more protests formed, and in some cases, led to new riots and
confrontations with the police.
The Stonewall Uprising changed the Nation's history. After the Stonewall
incident, the LGBT community across the Nation realized its power to
join together and demand equality and respect. Within days of the
events, Stonewall seemed to galvanize LGBT communities across the
country, bringing new supporters and inspiring LGBT activists to
organize demonstrations to show support for LGBT rights in several
cities. One year later, the number of LGBT organizations in the country
had grown from around 50 to at least 1,500, and Pride Marches were

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held in a number of large cities to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising.
The quest for LGBT equality after Stonewall evolved from protests and
small gatherings into a nationwide movement. Lesbian women, gay men,
bisexual and transgender people united to ensure equal rights for all
people regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Hard-
fought civil rights victories in courtrooms and statehouses across the
country set the stage for victories in the Supreme Court that would have
seemed unthinkable to those who rose up in Greenwich Village in June
1969. Today, communities, cities, and nations celebrate LGBT Pride Days
and Months, and the number of Pride events approaches 1,000. The New
York City Police Department now has an LGBT Liaison Unit to build
positive relations with the LGBT community, and provides the community
with expert protection when threats are identified. Most importantly,
the Nation's laws and jurisprudence increasingly reflect the equal
treatment that the LGBT community deserves. There is important distance
yet to travel, but through political engagement and litigation, as well
as individual acts of courage and acceptance, this movement has made
tremendous progress toward securing equal rights and equal dignity.
WHEREAS, section 320301 of title 54, United States Code (known as the
``Antiquities Act''), authorizes the President, in the President's
discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks,
historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or
scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled
by the Federal Government to be national monuments, and to reserve as a
part thereof parcels of land, the limits of which in all cases shall be
confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and
management of the objects to be protected;
WHEREAS, in 2000, the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) designated
the Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park, and portions of the surrounding
neighborhood as a National Historic Landmark for its association with
the Stonewall Uprising, a momentous event that inspired a national LGBT
civil rights movement;
WHEREAS, for the purpose of establishing a national monument to be
administered by the National Park Service, the City of New York has
donated to the Federal Government fee title to the approximately 0.12-
acre Christopher Park;
WHEREAS, the designation of a national monument at the site of the
Stonewall Uprising would elevate its message and story to the national
stage and ensure that future generations would learn about this turning
point that sparked changes in cultural attitudes and national policy
towards LGBT people over the ensuing decades;
WHEREAS, it is in the public interest to preserve and protect
Christopher Park and the historic objects associated with it in the
Stonewall National Historic Landmark;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of
America, by the authority vested in me by section 320301 of title 54,
United States Code, hereby proclaim the objects identified above that
are situated upon lands and interests in lands owned or controlled by
the Federal Government to be the Stonewall National Monument (monument)
and, for the purpose of protecting those ob

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jects, reserve as a part thereof all lands and interests in lands owned
or controlled by the Federal Government within the boundaries described
on the accompanying map, which is attached to and forms a part of this
proclamation. The reserved Federal lands and interests in lands
encompass approximately 0.12 acres. The boundaries described on the
accompanying map are confined to the smallest area compatible with the
proper care and management of the objects to be protected.
All Federal lands and interests in lands within the boundaries described
on the accompanying map are hereby appropriated and withdrawn from all
forms of entry, location, selection, sale, or other disposition under
the public land laws, from location, entry, and patent under the mining
laws, and from disposition under all laws relating to mineral and
geothermal leasing.
The establishment of the monument is subject to valid existing rights.
If the Federal Government acquires any lands or interests in lands not
owned or controlled by the Federal Government within the boundaries
described on the accompanying map, such lands and interests in lands
shall be reserved as a part of the monument, and objects identified
above that are situated upon those lands and interests in lands shall be
part of the monument, upon acquisition of ownership or control by the
Federal Government.
The Secretary shall manage the monument through the National Park
Service, pursuant to applicable legal authorities, consistent with the
purposes and provisions of this proclamation. The Secretary shall
prepare a management plan, with full public involvement and in
coordination with the City, within 3 years of the date of this
proclamation. The management plan shall ensure that the monument
fulfills the following purposes for the benefit of present and future
generations: (1) to preserve and protect the objects of historic
interest associated with the monument, and (2) to interpret the
monument's objects, resources, and values related to the LGBT civil
rights movement. The management plan shall, among other things, set
forth the desired relationship of the monument to other related
resources, programs, and organizations, both within and outside the
National Park System.
The National Park Service is directed to use applicable authorities to
seek to enter into agreements with others, and the New York City
Department of Parks and Recreation in particular, to enhance public
services and promote management efficiencies.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke any existing
withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation; however, the monument shall
be the dominant reservation.
Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not to appropriate,
injure, destroy, or remove any feature of this monument and not to
locate or settle upon any of the lands thereof.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fourth day
of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand sixteen, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and
fortieth.
BARACK OBAMA





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