Explore Stonewall National Monument's digital makeover and add your own story
The Stonewall National Monument sits outside the Stonewall Inn in New York City, home of the legendary 1969 riots that helped kick off the transformational LGBTQ rights movement.
The monument sits in a tiny public park. It was designated as a national monument by President Obama in 2016. While the monument itself attracts plenty of tourists, especially during Pride season, people who don't live in New York City and who aren't planning on visiting it anytime soon don't have access to it.
That's why New York City's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center, otherwise known as The Center, decided to partner with Google to develop a digital version. The online monument, known as "Stonewall Forever," was unveiled to the public on Tuesday.
The digital monument exists as a website and as an app, available on Android and iOS. It includes a collection of videos, a short documentary film, oral histories that already existed, and oral histories that were created specifically for this project -- plus a dash of augmented reality. Even if you've already visited the physical Stonewall Monument, it's worth checking out the digital one.
"The Stonewall National Monument is a physical place in New York City but the impacts of the Stonewall riots have been felt across the globe," Jeff Klein, chief strategy officer for The Center, told Mashable in a phone interview. "By partnering with Google [and making this digital], we allow people to contribute no matter where they are."
"It's a modern take on what a monument is and what an experience like this can be," Klein says. "It's much more interactive and it's much more tactile."
Users can "travel" to the monument by visiting the webpage or using the app, then hear different stories and explore Stonewall history by moving upwards towards the sky in the main frame and clicking on glowing shapes. Once users have traveled high enough up in the sky, they can share their own stories and insights by selecting "Add to the monument" in the upper right-hand corner. Finding the "Add to the monument" option can be a little tricky, but just keep navigating upwards and you'll eventually find it.
The Center specifically chose to amplify the stories of Stonewall participants who've been traditionally excluded from mainstream narratives.
"We've intentionally focused on people who've been excluded from records of Stonewall, including people of color, and members of the trans and gender nonconforming communities," Klein says, adding that the monument spotlights Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, trans women of color who played a key role in the riots and the subsequent LGBTQ rights movement.
William Floyd, Google's director of state and local policy, also wanted to zoom in on underrepresented stories and those of individual users -- making them accessible to a global audience only a tech giant like Google could provide.
"We need to be inclusive of all voices," Floyd told Mashable in a phone interview. "There are certain stories that are readily identified with Stonewall. But then there are those from -- the trans community, communities of color, that aren't. We wanted to create a platform that allowed people to contribute their stories. People can get that additional texture and depth to that movement if they find a story in there that resonates with them. Then they can amplify it by adding their own stories. The personal piece was very important and integral to this project."
There's only so much history one physical monument can encapsulate. A digital one that's constantly collecting new stories stands to grow forever.
Topics Activism
Heather was the Web Trends reporter at Mashable NYC. Prior to joining Mashable, Heather wrote regularly for UPROXX and GOOD Magazine, was published in The Daily Dot and VICE, and had her work featured in Entertainment Weekly, Jezebel, Mic, and Gawker. She loves small terrible dogs and responsible driving. Follow her on Twitter @wear_a_helmet.
