National Park Service to mark LGBT historical sites

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell has announced that the National Park Service will start marking places of significance to the history of lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual Americans.

She made the announcement Friday at New York's Stonewall Inn, where riots widely credited with starting the modern gay rights movement took place in June 1969.

She says that the struggle is ongoing and that "part of the job of the National Park Service is to tell this story."

The shift comes after years of debate about how LGBT people fit into America's historical narrative and whether they should be included in textbooks.

The park service is convening a panel of scholars who will identify sites important to LGBT history. The sites will be evaluated for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, designation as National Historic Landmarks or consideration as national monuments.