‘Beloved’ Gay Tradition Is Now A Total Freak Show

What’s in a “pride parade”? The first clue is in the name. 

Washington, D.C.’s WorldPride Parade promises celebrants “freedom to be visible.” They claim the parade is a “beloved tradition” which “honors our history and acknowledges the evolution of the LGBTQ+ neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., while respecting the origins and importance of taking to the streets in our fight for equality.” WorldPride’s website touts the “ultimate kids’ zone — a fun-filled oasis where young campers can unleash their creativity, play, and celebrate in a vibrant, inclusive space.” (RELATED: Multiple People Shot During DC Pride Parade After Gay Activists Rejected Security Measures)

Organizers omit mention of gyrating, nearly nude men atop floats, as captured on video in a scene from 2023’s WorldPride Parade. Men dressed in sexual fetish gear, including dog masks, are also visible. Similar sights have been spotted at pride parades nationwide. Video captures group of men sporting only speedos dancing provocatively atop a firetruck in this year’s West Hollywood pride parade. The camera pans to a young child in the audience. 

A quick review of live footage from 2025’s WorldPride Parade returns plenty of inappropriately dressed men and women. In less than ten minutes, beginning around the 1:35:09 mark, the following individuals appear on camera:

• A person dressed as an orange-skinned infant, waving an oversized bottle and rattle, wearing a grotesque mask of President Donald Trump.
• Two men in dresses, exaggerated makeup, and fake breasts, and crowns. 
• A shirtless, obese man, clad in leather, sporting some sort of mask with devil horns.
• A man dressed in a skirt, leather clothing, and a crown.
• A gaggle of men in pink princess dresses. 

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 01: Participants attend the 2025 WeHo Pride Parade on June 01, 2025 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Araya Doheny/Getty Images)

Pride parade attendees can expect flags in most varieties except American. The vintage rainbow striped flag is ubiquitous — though perhaps outflanked by its modern rendition: a triangle of various colors representing transgender-identified, Hispanic, black, and intersex individuals imposed upon the rainbow stripes. The Palestinian flag also makes regular appearances in parade footage. (RELATED: Where Were The Gays At Gay Pride?)

Political messaging ostensibly unrelated to sexuality is also common. Marchers in San Francisco’s 2025 Pride Parade carried signs reading “Capitalism is the Disease, Socialism is the Cure,” and “Queer, as in, End Capitalism.” Punctuation added for clarity. 

TOPSHOT – Participants hold up anti Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) references while marching along the 55th annual gay pride parade in San Francisco, California on June 29th, 2025. (Photo by Josh Edelson / AFP) (Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

A compilation from New York City’s 2025 Pride Parade includes signs reading “Fuck Trump,” “Fuck Fascists,” each proudly displayed by shirtless individuals. A woman wearing a “Church Ladies for Choice” sash holds a sign reading, among other remarks, “God is a Dyke!” Several wheelchair bound attendees, one topless, appear on screen. 

Leather fetish gear featured in pride parades as early as 1980. But the dress code has turned so bizarre, even one of the organizers of the first New York City pride parade, Fred Sargeant, is calling for a return to order.

No one had this nonsense in mind at the first Pride march. No one. There are pictures, fer chrissakes. https://t.co/dRaOLXGifi

— Fred Sargeant (@FredSargeant) June 29, 2025

“No one had this nonsense in mind at the first Pride march,” Sargeant commented on a photo of a bald, middle-aged man wearing a colorful tutu and striped calf-high socks. Robert Conquest’s first law of politics comes to mind: “Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.”

“Wasn’t it also encouraged to dress as regular as possible, to show the world that gay people aren’t freaks? Just regular people,” a commenter on X asked of Sargeant.

“That was the idea,” he replied. “When lesbians and gays had begun picketing about five years earlier there was a dress code of sorts; men wore jackets and ties, and women wore dresses. That started to fall apart at the last Annual Reminder and was formalized in our proposal for the march in November of 1969. If we’d known then what we know now, I’m sure that we would have added a caveat or two.”

Corporate America, too, is washing their hands of the festivities. 

Ahead of June, several longtime sponsors such as Comcast, Anheuser-Busch, Diageo and Benefit Cosmetics pulled funding for “pride” celebrations. Even San Francisco, of all cities, found themselves in the lurch. Nonprofit San Francisco Pride scrambled to raise $300,000 following corporate exodus. (RELATED: Another Major LGBT Pride Event Bleeds Corporate Sponsors During Trump’s Second Term)

It’s little wonder that an event named for the worst of the seven deadly sins has proved a den of degeneracy.

Follow Natalie Sandoval on X: @NatalieIrene03