Though the reality was that the Stonewall riots themselves, as well as the immediate and the ongoing political organizing that occurred following them, were events fully participated in by lesbian women, bisexual people, and transgender people, as well as by gay men of all races and backgrounds, historically these events were first named "Gay", the word at that time being used in a more generic sense to cover the entire spectrum of what is now variously called the 'queer' or LGBT community.