A gay icon, Garland always had a large fan base in the gay community. Her funeral in Manhattan resulted in an outpouring of New York City fans, with more than 20,000 coming to view her body - including 12,000 gay men. Five days after her death, mourning gay fans fought back against police during a routine police raid at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, which set off several days of "gay liberation" riots. Garland's death is often noted as a cause of one of the key events of the modern gay rights movement.
According to a book of David Shipman, Judy Garland: The Secret Life of an American Legend she was bisexual herself, and was in an intimate relationship with her (female) secretary; however, Shipman's tale has not been corroborated, and much of his scholarship has been questioned.