Areas rich gay pride history. The parade draws over 1 million people. But through the years the parade has meant a lot of Different Things to different people. Reporter gay and lesbian people would not have marched down the street the last 15 years ago. Nonetheless, wear costumes. Floats were sponsored by blue chip corporations and refreshments were pedaled by iconic american brand names, coke, pepsi, budweiser. Has the parade just become a big party. A commercialized event with nothing left to say. It was anything but widely accepted in 1972 when a band of gays, lesbians, hippies and anarchys marched down the street. And as their numbers grew so did their boldness. For the first time many felt safe in being publicly gay. Even flamboyantly gay. And according to susan striker, director of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, Transgender Society theyre too showy. Theyre too visible. They dont look like anybody else. And i think the extravagance of some gay pride parades is to say yeah so what. So