The US has announced a new monument to LGBT rights, the place where its gay pride movement began in the West Village of New York.

US President Barack Obama officially designated the Stonewall National Monument as part of the country’s network of national parks, saying that the “national parks should reflect the full story of our country – the richness and diversity and uniquely American spirit that has always defined us, that we are stronger together”.

The Stonewall Inn, a famous gay bar, was once the location of a huge uprising as LGBT people in the establishment fought back against a police raid, gathering momentum as more people joined the protest, which spread out to the nearby Christopher Park and became a large-scale demonstration against inequality. Those protests during June 1969 are now recognised as one of the critical events in the history of the gay rights movement.

In 2014, the National Parks Service announced an initiative to include more places that tell the story of LGBT America. The Chicago home of gay rights activist Henry Gerber – and place where the first LGBT rights organisation was set up in 1924 – was recognised as a National Historic Landmark in 2015.

The department is also running initiatives aimed at better telling the history of American Latinos, Asian Americans and women.