This week NPR showcased a story from its Radio Rookies program where Victoria Cruz told the story of her and her girlfriend being voted “Best Couple” at their South Bronx high school, though she is worried about coming out at home. NPR’s title, “For Some, Coming Out at School Easier Than Home,” struck a chord with me, because that has always been my experience.

While I didn’t grow up in the South Bronx, I grew up in the Deep South–New Orleans, LA. And, unlike Victoria, I never had the courage to be out in my small, all-girls, private high school. But my best friend did, and she and her girlfriend went to prom together and were met by complete acceptance by the other students and the school’s faculty.

When I finally came out to my classmates two years later, I was also greeted with a similar level of acceptance. I came out to my class after a night of drinking margaritas, showing up to the school’s most important event (the senior Nativity pageant) heinously drunk, and then going out to another bar. Though my coming out was definitely prompted by alcohol,  coupled with the fact that I had decided to finally cut my hair off like a “real lesbian,” it was something that I had been ready to do for some time. The haircut, though, finally gave me the courage to do it, and that night as I announced in the middle of Fat Harry’s “Yeah, I’m gay, so what?” the computerized bar games that generally involved comparing pictures of naked men changed to comparing pictures of naked ladies, all for my sake.

My mother, however, has preferred to stay in a certain state of denial. And while you could make a strong argument that it’s just her fear of deviating from societal norms, I think it’s more than that. June 26th marked the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, which changed the course of LGBT history forever. It’s easy to look back and think that Stonewall’s impact on our lives can only be seen in the fact that we’re no longer hiding out in bars, I think it’s far more pervasive. Stonewall started our movement; and without Stonewall, there’s a good chance parties like homo/sonic would have to be completely underground, with raid lights on the ceiling to let us know the police were on their way.

Because of Stonewall and the hundreds of activists and fighters that came afterward, young LGBT people have been able to surround themselves with peers that don’t sneer at them because of their sexual preference, but embrace them. In an age where Stonewall and the events of the early gay rights movement can get lost in our own fight for marriage equality, it’s important to look back and remember how much was won in terms of social acceptance, and to thank the older members of our queer community for giving us that. Everyone needs to remember and honor their history, and it’s especially important for members of the LGBT community right now. During a time when it can seem like progress is impossible, it’s important to be able to look back and see how far we’ve come.

It’s true that most people in my high school class had no idea what the Stonewall riots were; I didn’t either until I went to college. But just because you don’t know about an event doesn’t mean that the messages from it aren’t disseminated across a culture. And that’s evident today, where young people of every race, socio-economic class and culture are seemingly more likely to embrace the LGBT community than the generation before them.