Empire State Pride Agenda is not happy with the announcement that just one LGBT group will be allowed in the St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City. After years of banning all LGBT groups, they have decided to let one in—and it is a corporate one.
Empire State's Executive Director Nathan M. Schaefer stated: "The news that the organizers of the St. Patrick's Day Parade will allow one LGBT group — OUT at NBC Universal — to march under its own banner for the first time strikes us as disappointing and self-serving. While this development is long overdue, inviting one group to march at the exclusion of all others and continuing to refer to our vibrant community as 'gay' when it is in fact lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, is a far stretch from the full inclusion we deserve.
"For more than 20 years, the LGBT and allied community have been calling for the organizers of New York City's St. Patrick's Day Parade to allow LGBT people to celebrate both their Irish and LGBT pride by welcoming and including LGBT groups among its participants. We commended Mayor de Blasio, the New York City Council and sponsors like Guinness for standing with our community by refusing to march or participate in this year's parade, which set the stage for the organizers to rethink their discriminatory practices and to make this initial step in the right direction. The organizers of the St. Patrick's Day Parade stand alone in its continued exclusion of LGBT participants while business and political leaders stand on the side of LGBT equality and inclusion.
"As New York's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy organization, we call on all leaders, community members and allies to demand that the organizers go even further. We call on them to take a bolder stand for inclusion by welcoming other groups that truly represent lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Irish Americans to march in 2015.
"New York is known for its diversity and inclusive spirit. Discrimination against LGBT people in New York City is illegal, and we're proud to host the country's largest LGBT pride parade down the very same street, in fact, on which we're denied participation each March. We must continue the momentum from this small step in the right direction and call for full equality not tomorrow, but today."
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who has a long history of opposing equality for LGBT people, will lead the parade as grand marshal.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ) Foundation commended organizers of the New York City St. Patrick's Day parade, claiming that in coming years, other LGBT groups will be allowed to apply to march.
"We are pleased that the changes proposed by the parade committee will finally make it possible for LGBT Americans — including Irish Catholic LGBT Americans — to officially march under their own banners," said Sharon Groves, director of the HRC Foundation's Religion and Faith Program. "The discriminatory ban has been shameful, particularly in the very city where the LGBT rights movement got its start 45 years ago at the Stonewall Inn."
HRC earlier this year hailed the decisions of iconic brewers Guinness, Heineken, and Sam Adams for dropping their sponsorships of St. Patrick's Day parades that perpetuate discrimination against LGBT groups by banning their participation.
The LGBT civil rights organization also commends New York Mayor Bill de Blasio who had pledged to continue to boycott the parade until discrimination against LGBT groups ended.
"Hopefully, today's developments will lead to full inclusion of LGBT groups in the New York parade, and encourage parade organizers in other cities like Boston to follow suit and end their discrimination," Groves said.
Irish Queers issued the following statement:
Irish Queers — along with the scores of LGBT individuals, groups, and allies who have fought since 1991 for a parade that includes the whole Irish community — is learning about the change in the NYC St. Patrick's Day parade at the same time as the rest of New York City and the Irish community. We welcome this cracking of the veneer of hate, but so far Irish LGBT groups are still not able to march in our community's parades. The fight continues.
This is a deal that was made behind closed doors between parade organizers and one of their last remaining sponsors, NBC. It allows NBC's gay employees to march, but embarrassingly has not ended the exclusion of Irish LGBT groups. The parade organizers have said, astoundingly, that we "can apply" in years to come.
To the extent that parade organizers have changed their tune, it's the result of Irish Queers' many years of organizing, which led to last year's refusal to march by Council Speaker Mark-Viverito, Mayor de Blasio and others, the withdrawal of major corporate sponsors and escalating criticism of uniformed city workers marching in the Parade.
We welcome this small victory, but our call remains the same — the parade must be open to Irish LGBT groups, not "in subsequent years" but now. (We remember too well how parade organizers used fake waiting lists to bury our applications before.)
The Irish community in Ireland and abroad is far more progressive than the parade committee, having abandoned the secretive power-mongering of the days when the Catholic Church held sway over politics. We still hope NYC will catch up. This has been a long, long journey and struggle. It is time for Irish LGBT people, marching under our own banner, to take our rightful place in the St. Patrick's Day Parade.
Empire State Pride Agenda's Executive Director Nathan M. Schaefer issued this statement:
The news that the organizers of the St. Patrick's Day Parade will allow one LGBT group - OUT at NBC Universal - to march under its own banner for the first time strikes us as disappointing and self-serving. While this development is long overdue, inviting one group to march at the exclusion of all others and continuing to refer to our vibrant community as "gay" when it is in fact lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, is a far stretch from the full inclusion we deserve.
For more than 20 years, the LGBT and allied community have been calling for the organizers of New York City's St. Patrick's Day Parade to allow LGBT people to celebrate both their Irish and LGBT pride by welcoming and including LGBT groups among its participants. We commended Mayor de Blasio, the New York City Council and sponsors like Guinness for standing with our community by refusing to march or participate in this year's parade, which set the stage for the organizers to rethink their discriminatory practices and to make this initial step in the right direction. The organizers of the St. Patrick's Day Parade stand alone in its continued exclusion of LGBT participants while business and political leaders stand on the side of LGBT equality and inclusion.
As New York's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy organization, we call on all leaders, community members and allies to demand that the organizers go even further. We call on them to take a bolder stand for inclusion by welcoming other groups that truly represent lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Irish Americans to march in 2015.
New York is known for its diversity and inclusive spirit. Discrimination against LGBT people in New York City is illegal, and we're proud to host the country's largest LGBT pride parade down the very same street, in fact, on which we're denied participation each March. We must continue the momentum from this small step in the right direction and call for full equality not tomorrow, but today.
