A new space memorializing the site of the 1969 Stonewall riots is opening in New York City on Friday, and dignitaries including U.S. President Joe Biden and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand are expected to attend as the city marks the end of Pride Month.
The Stonewall National Movement Visitor Center will debut at 51 Christopher St. in Greenwich Village, next to the Stonewall Inn bar, on the 55th anniversary of the police raid turned demonstration that marked a watershed in the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.
The center will serve as a space honoring “the legacy of the Stonewall Rebellion while serving as a hub for learning about LGBTQIA+ history and the ongoing struggle for freedom,” according to a press release from Gillibrand’s office. Biden and other top public officials are slated to attend the center’s 4 p.m. Friday opening.
Entry into the space will be free of charge, and the center will be open on Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to its website. Former President Barack Obama originally designated the area around the Stonewall Inn as the country’s first national monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ rights during his second term, in 2016.
Ahead of the presidential election in November, Biden’s anticipated visit to the Stonewall site could potentially provide favorable optics for him, with nearly 9 million LGBTQ+ adults registered and eligible to vote in the last presidential election, data from the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles shows. Half of those voters were registered as Democrats, 22% as independents and 15% as Republicans.
Earlier this week, Biden pardoned ex-military members who were convicted over a now-defunct ban on consensual gay sex in the military.
