Monument status won't guarantee Stonewall's future

The area surrounding the Stonewall Inn is poised to become the first national monument dedicated to gay rights, but that doesn't necessarily mean the property will always be a bar.

There's actually nothing in the national monument designation or even the city's landmark law to prevent New York's most famous gay bar from someday becoming a coffee shop, a frozen yogurt joint or anything else.

The tavern was the site of a 1969 uprising that is widely viewed as the start of the modern-day gay rights movement. The bar closed that same year, just months after patrons resisted a police raid.