Phyllis Lyon and her late wife, Del Martin 

Octorber is LGBT history month and Logo (AfterElton.com's parent company) has launched a site that provides a timeline of LGBT history, with spotlights on people who've contributed to queer culture and a look at the progress LGBT people have made over the years. The site mixes video from Logo documentaries like Roxy: The Last Dance, gay films dealing with LGBT history such as Brother to Brother, as well as profile videos from previous LGBT History Months.

I'm finding the site really engrossing; it's a great way to quickly fill in gaps in your knowledge of LGBT history or just brush-up on some of the bits you might have forgotten.

Meanwhile the Equality Forum is once again looking at 31 LGBT icons, with a profile of a different icon every day. This year's celebration of gay history starts with the late Del Martin and her wife Phyllis Lyon, who were the first same-sex couple married by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2004 and the first couple legally married in California earlier this year. Each icon is examined with a short video, a biography and a handout nicely formatted for classroom use.

As in past years, the list includes a mix of people: artists, activists, athletes scholars along with people who became a part of history. Last year's list sparked some debate about if the picks were the best choices in teaching about LGBT history. What do you think? Is this year's mix appropriate? Does it improve on previous lists?

After the break, check out the full list of 2008's icons, a list that includes Mark Bingham, Greg Lougainis and Tony Kushner.

I have a confession to make: I’ve never been to a single gay pride event. And, due to my being in elementary school at the time, I never got to truly take advantage of living in the 80s, in all their gnarly, neon-colored glory.

But luckily for people like me, AfterElton reader Alan Light was kind (and brave) enough to share his extensive collection of photos of Los Angeles Pride from that period (the years 1987 , '88, '90, '91, '93, and '95 to be specific) and they're fabulous. If these photos teach us anything, it's that even gay men were not immune to terrible 80s fashion. Judging from these photos, the official uniform of gay pride was moussed hair, short shorts, and a fanny pack.

I wonder if it says something about our culture that while the look of the spectators has evolved over the years, the parade itself hasn't changed a bit. We've included a few more choice snaps after the break.

Gay people as a whole were exhausted by the routine police raids on gay bars in New York City. On June 28th at approximately 1:20am the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Village, and chaos ensued with many LGBT people fighting back. This raid would bring over 2,000 LGBT people to the streets of the Village demanding respect, equal treatment and freedom. As legend goes the crowd began chanting, “Gay Power!”, inspired by the “Black Power” movement of the ‘60’s, and proceeded to fight the police by throwing beer bottles and garbage cans.

The night would be full of beatings and bloodshed, however, the following evening everyone returned to the bars, not knowing their resiliency would be the catalyst for the gay rights movement. Now, thirty-eight years later, LGBT people have made incredible advances from holding political office to being a force in media to gaining ground in terms of equal rights. As Diana Ross once said, “I’ve fought all my life to get here and I’m not going anywhere!”

Since the riots occurred they have been the subject of the 1995 gay romantic drama Stonewall and have appeared as a reference as a cultural milestone in other gay films and movies dealing with civil rights.

Here's to everyone who stood their ground on that night, and all who have been standing it since.

Check out the short clip below for a fun song telling the history of Stonewall, as performed by Varla Jean Merman (Girls Will Be Girls).