Gay pride has it genesis in the rebellion of The Stonewall Riots of 1969. Decades later it is still a relevant cultural celebration steeped in tradition and meaning.

Gay Pride celebrations continue to grow each and every year in communities all around the world. Gay Pride is celebrated once a year and it commemorates the now famous and historic Stonewall Riots that marked the beginning of what has been an ever-unfolding gay culture over the last almost 40 years now.

In June 1969, The events that took place at The Stonewall Inn burst open the closet doors like never before in what has been described as the gay shot heard around the world. The Stonewall Inn was a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village.

On June 27, 1969, police came to raid the bar, as they had countless times before. Back then it was illegal to serve alcohol to homosexuals (go figure) and this was the grounds upon which the police would often raid the bar. This time, however, it was different. Instead of acquiescing to the police as they always had in the past, the bar patrons, gays, lesbians and drag queens fought back. In their fighting back they sparked what has come to be known as the Stonewall riots. A pivotal watershed moment in the history of gay culture.

There have always been groups and organizations working to forward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. Post-Stonewall years have seen the development of thousands of such organizations and gay media. The Stonewall riots initiated a much more meaningful delineation of the essence of this group's culture and community. We owe much of our subsequent liberation to the spirit of the '60s. Our roots to freedom were sown then in that gay renaissance.

The Stonewall riots were proof, in action, that being visible and standing up for themselves was the way that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people would be seen and heard and that there was both much needed and much that could be gained from such visibility and organization.

In the year following the Stonewall rebellion, in June of 1970, there was a pride parade-celebration held to commemorate the one year anniversary of The Stonewall up-rising. A new tradition Gay Pride was born. In the last 37 years, gay communities all over the world have celebrated gay pride each summer to recognize the anniversary of The Stonewall Riots and this salient point in the advancement of gay culture.

The genesis of modern-day gay pride clearly belongs to

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