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Feds to Protect LGBT Historical Sites

Set to be announced Friday.

The National Park Service will seek to include more places important to the history of the American LGBT community. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell is set to announce Friday a new initiative to create a committee of 18 scholars to research and locate LGBT sites to be included in the National Register of Historic Places. Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis said, “It’s important that the places we recognize represent the full complement of the American experience.” While commendable that the federal government is recognizing the importance of LGBT history to America, it’s important to note that $250,000 from the Gill Foundation, a major gay-rights donor group, is financing the project. Currently, only one LGBT site has the distinction of being a federal landmark: New York’s Stonewall Inn.