History, Natural History & the Arts
New York City’s Stonewall National Monument, the only site in the federal park system focused on LGBTQ history, is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
In a nod to the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, 250 rainbow flags were installed on the fence that surrounds Christopher Park, a tiny parcel at the heart of the monument in Greenwich Village. [Read more…] about A Complicated Birthday: 10 Years of Stonewall National Monument
The Trump regime removed the Pride Flag flying at the first and only National Park dedicated to LGBTQ+ history.
The removal of the flag at Stonewall National Monument comes exactly one year after the National Park Service removed references to transgender and queer people from their webpages, including the page on Stonewall. The move is the latest in a string of removals and changes censuring information on signs and exhibits on public lands that has picked up pace in recent weeks. [Read more…] about Pride Flag Removed from Only National Park Dedicated to LGBTQ+ History
The National Park Service announced last week that our national parks will no longer provide free admission on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth.
The park service removed the two official federal holidays that honor Black American history from its 2026 list of free entrance days — and added Donald Trump’s birthday. [Read more…] about National Park Service Cancels Free Admission on MLK Day, Juneteenth, Adds Trump’s Birthday
Longtime New York Almanack contributor Bruce Dearstyne has edited a collection of essays exploring how New York State understanding of freedom and liberty has evolved, and its relevance in American and world history.
Revolutionary New York: 250 Years of Social Change (SUNY Press Excelsior Editions, 2025) collects essays from several experts focusing on the struggle to fulfill the American Revolution‘s ideals of freedom and equality for all people over the history of New York. The State has often led the nation toward expanding its peoples’ rights. [Read more…] about A Revolutionary New York: 250 Years of Social Change
A new National Park Service (NPS) report shows that 116,537 visitors to Saratoga National Historical Park in 2024 spent $8,200,000 in communities near the park.
That spending had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $10,383,000, according to the study. [Read more…] about Study: Saratoga Battlefield Visitors Spent $8M in 2024; Nationally NPS Visitors Spent $29B
A particularly seminal event in LGBTQ+ history was the 1966 “Sip-In” at Julius’ Bar in Greenwich Village, around the corner from the Stonewall Inn, where the Stonewall Riots would happen three years later.
Drinking while gay in the early 1960s was considered illegal in New York State (and most states). In response to laws that prevented businesses from serving members of the LGBTQ+ community, gay rights organization the Mattachine Society organized the “Sip-In,” based on the “sit-ins” against segregation at Southern lunch counters. [Read more…] about The 1966 Julius’ Bar Sip-In: Prelude to Stonewall
The Preservation League of NYS has drafted a statement decrying recent actions by the federal government to rewrite and censor LGBTQ+ history, notably by removing all mention of Transgender and Queer people from the Stonewall National Monument website.
Now nearly 30 historic preservation organizations from around New York State have joined their opposition. [Read more…] about Some 30 Organizations Join Opposition to Erasure of LGBTQ+ History
An Executive Order issued by President Trump has caused the National Park Service to remove mention of transgender and queer people from the Stonewall National Monument webpage and other Park Service webpages associated with LGBTQ+ history.
Transgender and queer people led the Stonewall Uprising, which began on June 28, 1969, in response to what was then routine police raids on gay bars. The Stonewall Uprising is a key turning point in the LGBTQ+ rights movement in this country and around the world. [Read more…] about Stonewall National Monument’s Digital Erasure
The early conquest of overseas territories led to the application of European directives regulating life in the colonies.
Imposing rules on sexual behavior served as tools of social control and dominance. Prohibitions on “sodomy” entered legislation in New England and New Netherland with severe penalties attached. [Read more…] about ‘Sodomy’ & Colonial America Crime and Punishment
Three men vandalized the Stonewall National Monument on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village over the weekend. According to surveillance video released by the New York Police Department (NYPD), the men were passing by the monument around 3 am on June 10th. [Read more…] about Stonewall LGBTQ National Monument Vandalized
The quick-witted Hugh Ryan has a nose for history, as demonstrated in his book When Brooklyn Was Queer. His latest The Women’s House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison mines little-known historical sources to point out how a large and vocal population of queer-identified and trans people passed through the old cement monstrosity that used to stand next to today’s Jefferson Market Library in Manhattan‘s Greenwich Village.
Now a community garden, the site is a shout away from the Stonewall Inn, and Ryan writes the story of some of those imprisoned voices left out of the customary tales of the riot. In fact, prisoners set fire to their bedclothes and tossed them from the barred windows overlooking 6th Ave chanting “gay rights, gay rights gay rights.” Even before Stonewall’s impassioned response to police exploitation of gay bars, House of D. queer women, transmasculine people and other women were rioting for their rights in the jail. [Read more…] about Arrested Attention: The Women’s House of Detention
The National Park Service (NPS) is in the process of preparing a Stonewall National Monument park management planning document, and is asking for input from the community.
To participate in this effort, the public is invited to attend a meeting on Wednesday, January 17, 2018, 6:30 pm at The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center located at 208 W 13 Street, New York, NY. [Read more…] about Stonewall National Monument Meeting Jan 17th
Tucked away on the 4th floor of a much-repurposed 1850s school building in Greenwich Village, the LGBT Community Center’s National History Archive is a cultural and historical refuge-within-a-sanctuary.
The Community Center has been operating at 208 W. 13th Street since 1983. The entire building is intended to be a safe and welcoming place “where everyone is celebrated for who they are.” Today, the Center is an effervescent hub, and sponsors a broad-range of activities and programs for the lesbian, gay and transgender community, including health and wellness, arts and entertainment, and counseling. [Read more…] about NYC Community Center Archiving the LGBTQ Revolution
A new National Park Service theme study identifying places and events associated with the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer-identified Americans has been released.
LGBTQ America: A Theme Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History is believed to be a first of its kind study conducted by a national government to chronicle historical places, documents, people and events that shaped the LGBTQ civil rights movement in America. [Read more…] about National Park Service Issues LGBTQ History Study
On Monday, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis and White House Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett joined federal, state and local officials and LGBT leaders to participate in a public dedication ceremony to commemorate the designation of Stonewall National Monument in New York City.
President Obama designated Christopher Park in Greenwich Village as Stonewall National Monument using his authority under the Antiquities Act. The monument’s boundary also encompasses the Stonewall Inn, a seminal location in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) history, as well as the surrounding streets and sidewalks integral to the Stonewall Uprising. [Read more…] about Stonewall National Monument Dedicated In NYC
On June 23, 2015 the New York City Landmark Preservation Commission (LPC) voted unanimously to designate the Stonewall Inn an Individual Historic Landmark. The site is the location of the Stonewall riots of June 1969, an event that helped spark the current LGBTQ Pride Movement.
The building is already protected as part of the Greenwich Village Historic District and its significance derives entirely from its historical, social and cultural importance, rather than architectural, marking it a unique designation for the LPC. [Read more…] about Stonewall Inn Named Historic Landmark
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