On a sultry summer night in June 1969, the illegal gay drinking bars of New York were full of mourners drowning their sorrows following the spectacular funeral of Judy Garland in Manhattan that afternoon.

Although gay bars were raided by police on a regular basis, few owners were arrested - as long as they paid the cops off.

Despite the repeal of the prohibition laws in 1930, a State Liquor Authority ban on serving homosexuals was still in force, making the gay bars easy targets for cops on the make.

However, in the early morning hours of June 28, for the second time that week, a raid was carried out on the Stonewall Inn, a dingy, Mafia-run "private club" in Greenwich Village with a predominantly gay clientele.

The charge was the usual – the illegal sale of alcohol. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back and prompted a backlash from gays that would go down in history as ‘The Stonewall Rebellion’.

The police officers lined up the 200 customers to check identification. Most were free to leave, but the staff, as well as three drag queens and two male-to-female transsexuals, were detained. Rumour has it that the owners had refused to pay the hush money demanded by the cops.

Eyewitnesses recall that the scene outside the bar was at first jovial and festive. Tourists and passers-by joined patrons, and everyone cheered when a gay person emerged from the bar, released by the police.

But when the police loaded the bar`s staff and the three drag queens inside a vehicle to be taken away, the atmosphere on the street grew truculent.

One person threw a rock through a window, and eventually garbage cans, bottles, and even a parking meter were used to attack the building. By newspaper accounts, 13 people were arrested and three police officers sustained minor injuries in the confrontation.

Later that night and into Sunday morning, a crowd again gathered in front of the ravaged bar. Many young gay men showed up in protest of the raids, but the protest was peaceful.

"We are the Stonewall girls," they sang, kicking their legs in front of the police. "We wear our hair in curls - We have no underwear - We show our pubic hair."

Prior to the riot, the Stonewall Inn had been a second home to those who were considered too outrageous to be allowed entry to the strait-laced jazz club two doors down. Although reports differ one thing is sure: what started as a police raid on June 28, 1969 ended in a full-scale riot.

The police called for assistance after they had barricaded themselves inside the bar. The Tactical Patrol Force arrived in minutes, in full riot gear. For hours the TPF charged the taunting crowd, which scattered through the surrounding streets and then regrouped.

The police were astonished and clearly unprepared, as they never expected gays to fight back. On the night on the Stonewall riots, the assumption that homosexuals would ever again accept prejudice and discrimination without resistance died.

Perhaps more significantly, later that summer, at the end of July, gay activists circulated copies of a flyer calling for a mass "homosexual liberation meeting".

The headline of the flyer read, ‘Do you think homosexuals are revolting? You bet your sweet ass we are!’

The alliance that formed from the meeting held on July 24 adopted the name Gay Liberation Front (GLF).

Among its demands were not only an end to police harassment, but job protection for gay employees, the repeal of sodomy laws, and local and national anti-discrimination laws.

Since that day, numerous other organisations and a host of gay liberation publications have emerged. Among those organisations today, there`s everything from the Stonewall Democratic Club to the Stonewall Chorale. There’s even a bottled water called Stonewall.

All thanks to the heady summer of ’69.