But even though Pride parades might not look the same as they did at the beginning, much of the motivation behind Pride remains the same. "We have to come out into the open and stop being ashamed, or else people will go on treating us as freaks," Michael Brown, a founder of the Gay Liberation Front said to the New York Times before the first LGBTQ+ Pride parade. When Refinery29 asked NYC Pride-goers this year (almost 50 years later) why celebrations and parties like Pride are important, many echoed Brown's sentiment. It's important for straight and cisgender people to see that we exist, that we're happy, and that we aren't ashamed.