New York's St. Patrick's Day Parade Lifts 254-Year-Old Ban On Gays
Following several years of boycotts against New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day parade for its discriminatory policies toward openly gay participants, parade officials have finally decided to allow gay people to identify as such while marching in the parade next year.
Controversy over the parade’s “gay ban” swelled last year when officials allowed only one group to march — the LGBT organization at NBC, the network with exclusive rights to broadcast the parade.
At the time, officials claimed that LGBT groups were not barred from marching in the parade, but were not permitted to identify themselves as a gay group, since the parade is deeply rooted in Catholic tradition.
The frank discrimination led to a boycott from Mayor Bill de Blasio and several major sponsors, including Guinness, Heineken, and Sam Adams. (Ford, on the other hand, made a very loud statement by throwing support behind the discriminatory policies after feeling pressure to boycott — a fact you should definitely remember when buying your next car.)
It may have taken a liquor sponsor or two but, beginning next year, parade officials have decided to drop their ban on openly gay people. In lieu of making an announcement, the news was delivered by the Lavender and Green Alliance, an LGBT group that was quietly permitted to march in the 2016 parade.
“With the decision we cross a historic threshold and our members will proudly march up Fifth Avenue with our banner," said Brendan Fay, founder of the Lavender and Green Alliance. “As LGBT Irish Americans we thank John Lahey and the members of the Board for this historic decision which reflects the feelings of most Irish and Irish Americans."
