Gay Liberation Monument 1992

George Segal’s life-sized sculptural group of two men and two women is a monument to the gay rights movement, which began across the park at the Stonewall Inn. Segal based his sculptures on a gay and lesbian couple. Segal found models, and then took plaster casts of their bodies, which he then removed and were bronzed and painted white. Segal has used this technique to create some of his other sculptures, including “Commuters” at the Port Authority. This sculpture was commissioned in 1979 by Peter Putnam of the Mildred Andrews Fund, which provided funding for a monument to the Gay Rights movement. Bruce Voeller of the National Gay Rights Task Force had requested Peter Putnam to provide funding for a monument. George Segal’s design was chosen in 1982 with some controversy because he was not a gay artist and the figures were not racially or socially diverse.