St. Patrick's Day: How did it become a flashpoint for gay rights?
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Noelle Swan Staff writer
Gay Irish-Americans, still feeling the sting of discrimination a decade after Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage, have begun to make headway in their push to turn St. Patrick's Day parades into a national cause.
Mayor Bill De Blasio will be the first New York City mayor since 1993 to boycott the procession in protest of parade organizers鈥� ban on pro-gay placards. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh sat out this year鈥檚 annual parade in South Boston on Sunday for the same reason. The bans have also prompted Samuel Adams Brewery and Guinness to pull sponsorship from the Boston and New York parades, respectively.
The issue has been percolating for two decades. In 1995, the US Supreme Court ruled that the organizers of the Boston parade were within their rights to exclude the Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston, since it was a private event.
But public opinion about homosexuality has changed dramatically since then, and gay marriage is now legal in 17 states and the District of Columbia. That makes a difference, says Kara Coredini, executive director of MassEquality, a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) advocacy group in Boston.
"We鈥檝e had marriage equality for 10 years now in Massachusetts 鈥� we鈥檙e celebrating that huge anniversary this year. Seven in 10 people oppose discrimination against LGBT people at this point," she adds.聽"Just because the parade organizers still have the right to do this doesn鈥檛 mean that it鈥檚 the right thing to do."
To gay and straight Irish-Americans alike, St. Patrick's Day parades are a point of pride, and gay participants don't want to be compelled to hide who they are.
鈥淭here are Irish people who are LGBT there are veterans who are LGBT and they want to be able to participate in a parade that鈥檚 celebrating Irish heritage and that鈥檚 celebrating the service and sacrifice of our military service members,鈥� Ms. Coredini says.
Organizers in both New York and Boston have said that gay individuals are not prohibited from participating, but they are not permitted to identify themselves as LGBT.
Coredini sees that distinction as 鈥渧ery symbolic of the double standard that LGBT people face in their daily lives about being able to live their lives openly and honestly. In the case of the parade, the police, the firefighters, Irish groups, they are able to march down the street, behind their standards 鈥� their flag 鈥� and behind a banner that identifies what group they are.鈥�
Boston parade organizer the Boston Herald that the barring gays from the parade isn鈥檛 鈥渁 gay issue,鈥� and reiterated the Supreme Court decision allowing the Allied War Veterans Council of South Boston 鈥渢o ban anybody that we don鈥檛 want in there. It might have been Irish. It might have been blondes that talk too much.鈥�
He added later that LGBT groups have their own parade in June. They may want to march in this one too, but 鈥淭hey ain鈥檛,鈥� he said, 鈥淏ecause I said so.鈥�
Across the pond, many in Ireland are left wondering why parade organizers in the US would object to pro-gay signs.
鈥淚 find it extraordinary that Irish Americans can be so far behind the actual inhabitants of the island of Ireland," Irish Sen. David Norris聽told the Monitor聽in an e-mail. "Ten years ago the gay float won first prize in our national St. Patrick's Day Parade.鈥�
