It’s become a symbol of LGBT+ rights. Before stonewall people who were part of the LGBT+ community could be arrested just for being who they were despite being LGBT+ not technically being illegal. Many LGBT+ people were on the receiving end of horrific and unjust police brutality, and often they would create secret clubs that were often disguised as other things, most popularly, “coffee houses”. A lot of the time, these LGBT+ clubs where people could be themselves safely, would be discovered and raided by the police and shut down. This harsh treat of the LGBT+ led to what we know as the stonewall riot where LGBT+ people gathered to protest these injustices and put an end to them and to get rights that would protect future generations of lgbt+ people from such cruelty. The riot which started peacefully and ended violently, was able to successfully gather enough support for LGBT+ rights to be implored and even though it still was not socially acceptable to be LGBT+, they at least weren’t getting arrested and beaten by the police and raided for who they were. Today the anniversary of the stonewall riot is celebrated as a symbol of how the LGBT+ community began to have rights and began to have their love and who they were recognized