by Fred Kuhr

Pride in New York City was an even bigger deal this year with the opening of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center, which opened June 28 in partnership with the National Park Service.

Mark Segal, founder and publisher of Philadelphia Gay News (PGN) who participated in the Stonewall Rebellion as well as subsequent activism, was one of the people who advised organizers to ensure the new visitor center’s diversity of perspectives.

He was also present for a preview event last month to help those gathered imagine what it looked like on the night of the historic rebellion. “He gestured to the museum’s new theater — a flexible-use room with rows of chairs and a projector. It used to be a dance floor,” reported PGN. “He showed where the bar once stood, which is now outlined on the floor. Just a few feet away, coins sit atop a jukebox ready for today’s visitors to select their favorite hits of the time period — filling the space with music again. A former passageway between the visitor’s center and the still-active Stonewall Inn next door — which connected the buildings as a single bar in 1969 — is highlighted on the wall.”

In front of that sealed passageway, a glass panel features a quote from Segal. It reads: “Decades later, I recall stepping through the red curtains that covered the passageway connecting 51 and 53 Christopher Street — the original Stonewall Inn. I can still see the brown wood bar, the black-painted ceiling, and the young crowd dancing to Let the Sunshine In.”

At the preview event, Segal talked about the community he met after moving to New York City from Philadelphia in 1969. “Every night, we walked up and down [Christopher] Street — with a good deal of people you’ll see on these walls. These are my brothers and sisters,” Segal said during his speech, according to PGN. “Late at night, we’d come here — Stonewall. It was safe in here.”

Segal also appeared in a news package aired on NBC’s “Today” show about the new visitor center.

In a blog post for the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) entitled “I Was There in 1969: Why a Stonewall Visitor Center Matters,” Segal recounted his participation in the Stonewall Rebellion and “why NPCA’s work to establish the national monument and open a visitor center continues the path for equality.”

To celebrate Pride, President Joe Biden spoke at the new center on June 28, the day after his now-infamous debate performance against former President Donald Trump. “Today, I’m proud to unveil a new visitor center for the Stonewall National Monument, the first ever LGBTQ+ visitor center in the National Parks of America,” Biden said, according to PGN. “It matters. We remain in a battle for the soul of America. But I look around at the pride, hope and light that all of you bring, and I know it’s a battle we are going to win and continue to make progress.”

IN THE NEWS
Volume 26
Issue 4