Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service. I'm Vicki Fonkham. From Witness History, this is a special episode to mark June as Pride Month. We've brought together a collection of the highlights from our show, looking back at some of the major moments that change the lives of LGBT plus people.

It's history as told by the people who were there.

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Let's begin in 1969.

In June of that year, the gay community in New York

City responded to police brutality and harassment by rioting outside the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village.

The protest sparked the creation of the modern LGBT Plus rights movement and the first gay pride events.

Simon Watts speaks with Stonewall veteran John O'Brien.

People wanted to show their anger and resentment at the police for all their years of

brutality and intolerance. Here was a chance for me to finally express my feelings about what had been

done to me as a young gay kid growing up in an anti-gay society, and I wasn't alone.

The spark was a raid on the popular Stonewall bar. Hundreds of gay men, drag queens and lesbians

fought with the NYPD for several nights.

It empowered us. I think there was not anybody there who really cared about either being arrested or being hurt

because we had had miserable lives and we were just tired of it.

John O'Brien grew up in Harlem in the 1950s and 60s.

At the time, homosexual acts were illegal in New York

and almost every state in America.

There's no positive role models anywhere existing in society then.

You were a criminal. you were mentally sick,

...