The red brick facade of the Stonewall Inn has served as the backdrop to countless passages in the history of the gay rights movement.

It was there that a clash between gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender patrons and the New York City police in June 1969 led to a wave of demonstrations demanding equal rights. People gathered there somberly in October 1998, after Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay student, was beaten, tortured and left to die in Laramie, Wyo. And people danced and celebrated there last year when the Supreme Court declared marriage a right for all.

But even the most battle-weary Stonewall devotees said they were not prepared for the mass horror in Orlando, Fla. — a shooting at a gay nightclub that left at least 50 dead and 53 injured — that brought them together on Sunday at the storied West Village watering hole to grieve once again.

“We come today because we are a community that will never be silenced again,” Ken Kidd, 58, an organizer with Queer Nation, howled to a crowd outside.