What is the Purpose of a Gay Pride Parade??

For the life if me, I can't understand the purpose of gay pride parades. Is it to inform us that some people prefer sex with their own sex? We already know this and accept that gays have the right to their preference and shouldn't be harmed because of it.

I was unlucky enough today to get caught up in the traffic jam caused by my city's gay pride parade and, although it didn't hold me up very long, I got a chance to see firsthand what these parades look like.

As I approached the downtown center of the city I wondered about the presence of so many police officers and police cars in the vicinity and thought maybe there was another demonstration for bringing a hockey team here. Traffic was extremely slow and there were police officers everywhere...wonder who was looking after crime in the rest of town?? As I passed the main intersection of the downtown core I could see a vehicle (ambulance?) with flashing lights coming toward me and a group of people with banners following it. Son of a gun if it wasn't a gay pride parade and I'd never seen one in person!

I'd say that the number of people marching might be 50-75 but that would probably be an overestimation. Although some were obviously gay, the vast majority of the group appeared to be ratty looking street kids who were having the time of their lives being the center of attention. There were a few truly ugly men dressed as women in the parade and I felt so darned sorry for them. In all, I bet there were more police officers than marchers set aside to protect this spectacle.

The gay people I know look like everyone else, hold jobs, and are an asset to their community but the people I saw in this parade looked like circus freaks. They were no more representative of gays than they are of society as a whole and I think they did more harm to the gay community than was intended.

There has to be a deeper reason for holding gay pride parades than flaunting their sexual preference and would hope someone could tell me what the heck it is. I've seen the Toronto gay pride parades on T.V. and been very confused by how ignorantly many of the participants acted.

Maybe it's the word "pride" that confounds me. There was nothing to be proud of in the parade today, just a ragtag crew of misfits putting on a show for bystanders...and wasting the resources of our police department.