And how is this important?" you might ask. In fact, the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots would be marked by a new breed of LGBT events. And so, on the 28th June 1970, the gay pride was born.
This day, also called "Christopher Street Liberation Day", marked the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots with an assembly on Christopher Street and the first Gay Pride march in U.S. history, covering the 51 blocks to Central Park. The New York Times's front page reported that the marchers took up the entire street for about 15 city blocks. The Village Voice described it as "the out-front resistance that grew out of the police raid on the Stonewall Inn" one year earlier.
Kay Lahusen, who photographed the marches in 1965 stated, "Up to 1969, this movement was generally called the homosexual or homophile movement. [...] Many new activists consider the Stonewall uprising the birth of the gay liberation movement. Certainly it was the birth of gay pride on a massive scale."
Within two years of the Stonewall riots there were gay rights groups in every major American city, as well as Canada, Australia, and Western Europe. Gay prides were popping up everywhere in the western world. The riots spawned from a bar raid became a literal example of gays and lesbians fighting back, and a symbolic call to arms for many people.