After two years of planning, on this day in 1993, around one million people march on Washington, D.C. — people of all colors and ethnicities — demanding civil rights legislation and an end to discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

In the decades that follow, notable anti-discrimination legislation is enacted in the U.S., marriage equality is established by the Supreme Court, LGBTQ people find wider acceptance in popular culture, and healthcare for conditions associated with the LGBTQ community — including HIV/AIDS — is destigmatized and improved. While still facing serious challenges, as well as an ongoing need to defend social and political gains, LGBTQ people today are generally much freer to be out and express themselves authentically.