As the final speeches ring, applause accompanies the graduating service dogs and their veterans, ready for their new lives together.

When most people think of working dogs, they think of police dogs, military dogs, search and rescue dogs, detection dogs, hunting dogs, and dogs trained in protection work. In other words, dogs with an important job title.

Archeologists believe the use of sled dogs first began around 8,000 years ago based on carbon-dated remnants of sleds and harnesses found with canine remains in Siberia.

We celebrate in June to coincide with the initial spark of the modern Gay Liberation Movement: the Stonewall Uprising in the early morning of June 28, 1969, when police brutally raided a popular gay bar in NYC’s West Village.