I took Little Miss to the pride parade last week, and she had a blast!
On the way, I explained what the parade was about (in terms she'd understand), explaining aspects like sexuality/romantic (who people like to kiss/love, including those who don't want to kiss/love anyone, and all the combinations there), gender identity (being born one thing and feeling like you're something else/intersex), and the whole reason there's a 'celebration' about it (some people think it's wrong and queer people don't have support, so we show our support at the parade). I also explained how I'm a part of the community. (And I definitely explained things better when talking to her than summarizing here; right now, I'm very distracted and trying to hurry up so I can make her some lunch)
While we waited for the parade to start, we danced to the music that was playing, and I took some time to explain the history of pride, focusing on Marsha P Johnson, 'no cops at pride', and Dykes on Bikes (which I ended up explaining to my sister who was there as well, since she's not as educated on the history as I am).
She got lots of goodies: candy, cookies, tons of stickers, and even some blue sunglasses.
I definitely pointed out the pretty black and blue dress to her (I did wait until he had almost passed us so she wouldn't get the full effect). And across the street from where we were, I noticed this building.
We were around the halfway point, and there was one woman handing out candy that realized she was nowhere near halfway through the bag, so she offloaded three giant handfuls of taffy into my shirt that I pulled out to make a basket.
And sat next to us was a young man with clown makeup who made this flower for Little Miss. He was really respectful about it too, kinda slowly approaching from behind so that I'd notice him first, then, when acknowledged, he said he wanted to give it to her (with his facial expression showing that he was asking if it was okay to give it to her), but didn't want to startle us.
There was even a guy on our other side who was pretty much just wearing a jock strap and a torso harness. He was going back and forth between the barricade and the parking strip where he'd dropped off his stuff (Little Miss was doing the same) and it took her a few minutes to notice him. She stared for a few seconds, then shrugged it off and went back to watching the parade. She doesn't even remember him now.
What does she remember? Rainbows, candy, and happy people. That one kid who gave her his bracelet when he ran out of candy just before her. The person in a teal doggie costume who gave her a high five. The zombies from the local haunt who approached slowly, and were delighted when she smiled and waved at them, completely unfazed. And "the guys dressed like Mommy's Star Wars show" (the local 501st had some stormtroopers there, plus an Ahsoka).