ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Rochester's Pride celebrations wrapped up this past weekend.

Some are wondering why Rochester celebrates Pride in July, the month after the rest of the country. A local activist who was there at the beginning of the gay rights movement in the city has the answer.

Meeting twice a week, it may look like your typical senior chair yoga class.

“I particularly like the teacher, I like his routine," said Karen Hagberg, who attends regularly. "I have some issues with my back, and it really helps.”

The class is organized by Rainbow Seniors of Rochester and is for members of the LGBTQ community.

“You can freely be yourself and people understand you," said Hagberg. "And some of the people in the room I’ve known for 40 years.”

Hagberg has been attending classes for the better part of five years. The volunteer group is one of the many things she loves about Pride in Rochester.

“The gay community is the gay community, but at least my experience with the gay community for the last 50 years has been that, you know, I’m just in the community,” Hagberg said.

And when it comes to Pride in Rochester, the 79-year-old has been involved since the very beginning, helping form the Gay Liberation Front at the University of Rochester following the Stonewall Riots in 1969.

Many consider the New York City riots to be the beginning of the gay rights movement in America.

“To be acknowledged, noticed and acknowledged, and affirmed. I thought that was a really important thing to do," said Hagberg. "So that’s why I got involved, I was very excited about it."

Today, Pride has a completely unique culture in Rochester, celebrated in July instead of June like most of the country.

“Being situated geographically where we are, many gay people in Rochester wanted to attend events in Toronto and New York City in June," Hagberg said. "So if we were going to have a really bang-up Pride here, it had to be when everyone was back in town.”

And it’s the city’s inclusiveness that has kept her here since the 60s, where she now lives with her wife Dorothy Drake. They’ve been together for 30 years, but waited until it was legal federally to get married in 2015.

“Two weeks after that thing passed, we eloped to the Brighton Town Court,” Hagberg said.

Drake says its people like her wife who led the charge for others like her.

“She paved the way for me to make it normal for me," said Drake. "I don’t feel like I had to come out at all. I just live my life, and when people ask 'who do you live with? Are you married?,' all the questions – I felt perfectly fine answering them.”

But Hagberg won’t take much credit. 

“With people like Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, you know, for a couple centuries now, Rochesterians have been used to having radical activists in their midst,” Hagberg said.

She says with the city’s rich history of activism, Rochester has always been a bastion of Pride.

“Gay Pride is really strong here, it’s been really strong since the beginning. And it speaks to the community more and more every year,” Hagberg added.