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Gay Liberation Monument

New York City

Art & Culture

A Well-Placed Sculpture to a Monumental Movement

gay liberation monument sculpture greenwich village
gay liberation monument greenwich village
gay liberation monument sculpture greenwich village
  • 204 West 4th Street, New York, NY 10014
  • (212) 639-9675
  • https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/christopher-park/monuments/575

About Gay Liberation Monument

 & why it made the Carpe City list

  • At Christopher Park in Sheridan Square, you’ll find a statue called the Gay Liberation Monument.  
  • The monument, by artist George Segal, honors the Gay Rights movement and commemorates the Stonewall Uprising that took place at the Inn across the street on June 28, 1969.  
    • Segal also sculpted The Commuters for the Port Authority Bus Terminal on 42nd Street, and three tableaux for the FDR memorial in Washington, DC. 
  • The monument represents a male couple and a female couple in relaxed, easy poses.  The piece reflects the comfort and freedom that the Gay Liberation Movement aspires to create in all public places. 
  • The monument was commission in 1979, ten years after Stonewall. 
    • A stipulation of the commission required that the work “had to be loving and caring, andshow the affection that is the hallmark of gay people . . . and it had to have equal representation of men and women.”  
  • While the sculpture was approved in 1982, public opposition sidelined its completion for ten years. It finally debuted in Christopher Park in 1992. 

Carpe City Trivia

There's a second casting of the statue at Stanford University

That casting was initially intended for Los Angeles, but the city refused it. Instead, it was installed on the main quad at Stanford in 1984.

By: Lucie Levine
  • 204 West 4th Street, New York, NY 10014
  • (212) 639-9675
  • https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/christopher-park/monuments/575

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