It's the age-old question of "are pride parades a good idea or do they portray bad stereotypes?" which has been asked endlessly since the first gay pride in 1969 after the Stonewall riots.
And that's where the question can start to be answered. The Stonewall riots.
In the early hours of the morning of Saturday 28th June 1969 in a small New York City gay bar called the Stonewall Inn, for the first time ever the gays and lesbians fought back and resisted during and after an all-to-common violent police raid. It was what many see as the turning point in LGBT history. For the first time in our history, we stood up and said "no" to oppression and police violence. The police, having no control over the raid they had started, quickly saw the situation turn into a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations which lasted six days.