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"People traditionally haven't focused on use" when considering landmark status, Mayes noted. Of the two others, Webster Hall, built in 1886, became a nightclub in 1992 and the Church of the Holy Communion became the notorious Limelight (now closed). But in New York, only four have been landmarked so far, and of them, exactly two began life as dance clubs: the Rainbow Room, a high-end supper club in Rockefeller Center and La Casina, an Art Moderne building on the eastern fringe of the city, long used as a factory. Of course, many local nightclubs could fall under that requirement. "It's always easier to save beautiful buildings than ugly ones, but buildings of cultural significance are still important." "There's a lot of interest right now in LGBT history," said Tom Mayes, deputy general counsel of the National Trust for Historical Preservation. In addition to Stonewall, there are four other sites already given National Historic Landmark status, all of them private homes. The National Park Service project has identified close to 400 sites deemed of historical LGBT interest across the country, from bathhouses to places of worship. The music was mostly Motown, a lot of Martha and the Vandellas." Everyone went because it was the best place to dance and the jukebox was so good. We were angry that we couldn't dance."Īs for the music that soundtracked that dancing, "it was totally eclectic," Lanigan-Schmidt says. "That had everything to do with the rebellion," he continues. Because you were having an affectionate moment, you felt totally humanized." Being able to dance with someone of the same sex changed everything in the way you felt about yourself. "It was the only bar where we could slow dance," recalls artist Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt, who participated in the riots. The violent protests in reaction to the police raid were motivated-at least partly-by these marginalized groups feeling that their freedom to dance was being threatened. Even before the riots, the Stonewall had already achieved underground fame as a rare space where gay men, lesbians and drag queens could lock limbs with each other with impunity. While its centrality to the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States is widely acknowledged, the point that gets lost in the historicity of the place is that the Stonewall was, above all, a dance bar. Coverage of the Stonewall riots was tinged with homophobia