BY PAUL SCHINDLER | In an unmistakable sign of the role private philanthropy can — and may have to — play with federal funding threatened across a broad array of worthy social goals, Google has committed $1 million to support efforts at the L.G.B.T. Community Center to develop oral histories and other narratives related to the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969 that can be preserved and disseminated in digital formats.
The funding, announced at a press conference on June 18 — the beginning of Pride Week in Manhattan — will allow the Center to partner with the National Park Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group that supports the mission and facilities of the U.S. National Park Service, to enhance the experience visitors enjoy when they travel to the Stonewall National Monument. The national monument was created in Christopher Park, across the street from the Stonewall Inn, last June 24 in an executive proclamation by President Barack Obama.
According to a written statement from the Center, the Google funding, which comes in the form of a two-year grant from its charitable arm, Google.org, will allow the W. 13th St. community facility and the N.P.F. “to seek out and document robust, diverse narratives of the Stonewall Uprising and transform the reach of the national park beyond a physical place. The result will be a digital experience that broadly shares the story of L.G.B.T.Q. civil rights, firmly establishing L.G.B.T.Q. history in the fabric of American history.”
That digital experience, speakers at the press conference emphasized, would be available to millions worldwide, whether or not they are able to visit the West Village national monument.
The announcement of the Google grant was made at the Center by U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and West Side Congressmember Jerrold Nadler, and Schumer did not shrink from emphasizing the significance of the Silicon Valley giant stepping up in this political climate.
“This announcement sends an unmistakable message to Washington: that the America we know celebrates and cherishes its diversity; it doesn’t hide from it or fear it,” Schumer said. “Google’s generous pledge could not come at a more vital time. With federal funding under assault, Google’s investment will be a shot in the arm for the Center and its work to better the L.G.B.T.Q. community.”
Schumer ominously warned that an executive order from Trump has empowered the secretary of the Interior to review all national park designations made through the Antiquities Act — on which authority Obama relied in creating the Stonewall National Monument. Pledging to fight any effort to overturn the designation, the senator saluted those “brave New Yorkers who nearly 50 years ago taught this country the power of resistance.”
Glennda Testone, the Center’s executive director, emphasized the value of making the Stonewall National Monument a digital story available worldwide.
“The inspirational funding that Google is providing to the L.G.B.T. Community Center will lift up L.G.B.T.Q. history on a global platform, further magnifying the Stonewall Uprising’s place in the overall story of the L.G.B.T.Q. civil rights movement,” she said.
Will Shafroth, the N.P.F.’s president, explained that $250,000 from the Google grant will go directly into the projected $2 million budget for “effectively launch[ing]” the national monument, which is expected to host an on-site visitor’s kiosk, as well as the digital experience his group and the Center will help the National Park Service make available.
“The national parks community is grateful for Google’s support to develop education programs for New York City students — and eventually students worldwide — that focus on the important issues of equality, human rights, civil rights and more,” Shafroth said.
According to an article in The New York Times, the idea for Google’s support of the national monument and the Center came from William Floyd, the company’s openly gay head of external affairs for New York.
Eric Schmidt, executive chairperson of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, said, “The Stonewall National Monument is a testament to the brave people whose actions that night sparked the beginning of the modern L.G.B.T.Q. civil rights movement. With our donation, my hope is we can capture and preserve their stories and, through technology, share them with the world to inspire all those who continue to strive for human rights.”
The work that Google’s donation and additional fundraising by the N.P.F. will allow is expected to be completed by June 2019, when World Pride will celebrate the Stonewall Rebellion’s 50th anniversary in New York.
Among veterans of the Stonewall Rebellion present was Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt, who was 18 when police raided the bar. At last year’s designation of the national monument, Lanigan-Schmidt recalled the Stonewall of that era as “a dingy nondescript building that was like a speakeasy, run by the Mafia” — but one, at least, where slow dancing, “a full embrace,” was allowed.
