Irish Gay Group Banned From St. Patty's Day Parade...Again

File this one under "WTF!?"

'Everyone wants to be Irish' in New York parade
Protesters join St. Patrick's march after chairman's remarks

NEW YORK (AP) -- Protesters joined bagpipers, marching bands and thousands of flag-waving spectators at the St. Patrick's Day parade Friday after the parade's chairman compared gay Irish-American activists to neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and prostitutes.

As huge, happy crowds lined the streets, the chairman, John Dunleavy, sidestepped questions about his remarks to The Irish Times.

"Today is St. Patrick's Day. We celebrate our faith and heritage, everything else is secondary," he said before the start of the Fifth Avenue parade.

Dunleavy set off a firestorm this week when he told the newspaper: "If an Israeli group wants to march in New York, do you allow Neo-Nazis into their parade? If African Americans are marching in Harlem, do they have to let the Ku Klux Klan into their parade?"

Referring to the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization, Dunleavy said, "People have rights. If we let the ILGO in, is it the Irish Prostitute Association next?"

On Thursday, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who is gay, blasted Dunleavy for the comments. Quinn, who is Irish, declined to participate in the parade after organizers barred an Irish gay and lesbian group from marching under its own banner for a 16th straight year.

"I can't deny who I am on any given day," said Quinn, who was arrested in 1999 for protesting at an exclusionary parade in the Bronx.

Quinn said the city's Irish gays had long hoped to march with their own banner, like other groups, but were willing to walk with the City Council as a unified group. "There were moments where I was hopeful that we could have come to some agreement. But that didn't happen."

Dunleavy told The New York Times in Friday's editions that Quinn "is more than welcome to march as the leader of the City Council, but no buttons or decorations in any shape or form."

Police on scooters positioned themselves between the marchers and about a dozen gay-rights protesters, who chanted: "We can march in Dublin, we can march in Cork, why can't we march in New York?"

Also barred from the parade was the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, which lobbies on behalf of undocumented Irish immigrants in the United States.

Efforts to let Irish gays march under their own banner date to 1991, when parade organizers first rejected an ILGO application. When 35 ILGO members marched with a Manhattan division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians and then-Mayor David Dinkins, they were sprayed with beer and insults. It was the group's last appearance in the parade, which draws up to 2 million spectators.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was marching Friday, had urged the Hibernians to change their stance.

"I've always believed this is a city where all the parades should be open to everybody, and orientation, gender ... should not be the deciding thing," he said.

The mayor marched earlier this month in an inclusive St. Patrick's parade in Queens.

The city's main parade, with 150,000 marchers, is the nation's oldest and largest.

Scores of bagpipers, high school bands and Irish societies streamed past crowds waving Irish flags or wearing green hats, green carnations or green shamrocks painted on their faces.

Spectator Mary Sweeney, who moved to New York from Ireland 15 years ago with her two daughters, said, "I want them to grow up knowing their Irish heritage. Everyone wants to be Irish today."

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/17/stpatricks.gays.ap/index.html

i guess they need a gay st patty's day now... for our homosexual friends!

What's so hard to belive?

People hate faggots. That's not news.

Yeah, this seems to be a normal news report of an awful stupid thing.

Knowing Kiamat, I am having trouble trying to discern the hidden right wing agenda here.

Reading this just makes you sympathetic to the Irish GBLT group and makes the homophobes who organise the parade look like the jerks that they are.

Has Kiamat gone leftie or something?

You don't have to be a leftie to be gay or to support gay rights.

Why can't the GLBT Irish community simply march as Irish people? Why does everything have to be an opportunity for rainbow flag waving? The parade chairman said some truly stupid and offensive things, but he does have a bit of a point. Is there an Irish heterosexuals group marching under a specific banner about their sexual orientation? Somehow I doubt it. So why does the GLBT community have to flaunt theirs at every opportunity? I have nothing but empathy and sympathy for the plight of gays in this country but they really need to learn to pick their battles. Sometimes it's okay just to be a person and not have to stick a qualifier in front of it.

Why should they not?

Most parades are organized by different groups. They walk carrying banners for fucks sake.

Flaunt? Hardly.

Agree. Disagree.

Mostly I am just surprised to see such (apparent) sensitivity coming from Kiamat who's answer to most of the worlds problems (based on his forum posts) seems to be rabid flag-waving and "Death from Above."

I mean Chip is one of the most sensitive people on the forums and he's disagreeing and Kiamat is the one who started the thread, which kind of implies that he agrees. I think I have somehow stumbled into Bizarro world.

Everyone please get back in your pigeon holes, this is just too disturbing.

maybe if those gays didn't hate Bush so much and stopped trying to desecrate the sanctity of marriage they'd be allowed to march alongside normal Americans.

I agree with Chip.

I'm all for gay rights, equal protection, gay marriage, etc. But come on, the St. Patrick's Day parade is not about sexual orientation, it's about Irish heritage. Pick your battles, that's exactly my feeling on this as well.

And do I think Kiamat posted this in the spirit it was intended? No, I think he posted this to split us up....because now we're disagreeing with each other instead of with him and Kevn.

Yes that's true. But they typically aren't banners advertising their sexual preference are they? I doubt there are banners for "Irish Heterosexuals Local 527." St. Patrick's day parades are about celebrating being Irish (or pretending to be for the day). It's not about sex, hetero, homo, or otherwise (that all comes later after the green beer). The GLBT community could have marched just like anyone else had they not tried to turn the parade into a gay pride event. If it were up to me I'd extend that to include religious displays too since it has nothing to do with Irishness specifically. For as much as gays complain about other people defining them by their sexual orientation, why do they go so far out of their way to do it to themselves?

Honest truth? Because they are trying to prove how stupid it is to attack/persicute/osctracise people for any minor social differance.

And yes, most of this is minor, except for a bunch of people who seem to think it's the worst horror they can imagine. To be honest, I really don't care about any minority. Either way. I just can't stand people who say "No, you can't play with us. You're differant!"

Then again, I never thought as a kid that adults acted the same way as morons like that anyway. Boy, did I get a surprise...

It's still damn odd tho. Gay people are kewl. What are people so afraid of, really?

In other words, they're trolling?

Straight people define their sexual orientation all the time! They have weddings to celebrate their straightness under god, hold hands in restaurants, have paintings in the museum that commemorate and sanctify their hetero-ness, straight people are ALWAYS smooching in public, on TV, on Movies. Sheesh! Why do they have to be so demonstrative? =D (teasingly serious, there)

The fact that hetero culture defines all culture as hetero unless it singles itself out as exceptional makes it necessary for queer culture to create these kinds of outlines.

Being gay is not about sex either. They didn't want a SPD orgy.

I mean why march as an Irish cop? Wy not just an Irish person? Is there a group marching at Irish non-cop citizens?

Bull pucky. It's like blacks who constantly complain about racism but go way out of their way to make everything about their race with things like their own race based tv network and race based awards shows and on and on. What's wrong with people coming together for a parade under a common umbrella without shoving their differences in each other's faces? What does St. Patty's day have to do with sexual orientation? Nothing as far as I can figure, so why make it about that? I think both sides in this incident were equally in the wrong.

if I'm wearing a "Kiss Me. I'm Irish" button , then quite a lot

Of course it is. The only thing that defines a gay person is their sexual orientation. It's not about liking pastels or being a Liza Minelli fan or having a fondness for showtunes.

So if you lean to the right you can't support gay rights? Damn those gays in Illinois need to stop cashing my checks! OMGZ?!?!!?!?!?!? I might not be able to attend Pride Parade this year. Ohhh Noessss.



When white people have these things what is it called? Ohh yeah, everyday life in the Western World. Dude wake up. Black Americans have had their own entertainment and culture since they were brought to this country. Guess what? Not everyone is the same. Shame on you for pissing on other peoples desire to celebrate their culture. Now personally, I watch no black television, but there are some people that like it, mainly white people in the suburbs that buy all the crap rap music.

No it isn't. That's just silly.

We like to call it love, but you seem to want to turn it all into a vaseline orgy during the parade.

What does SPD have to do with being a cop or in any of the other groups walking down the street with a sign?

I know it's hard to look at the faggots and i would like to personally apologize for putting you through that trauma.

Ahhh, I see, so white people are flaunting their whiteness just by existing? Everything not specifically labeled black has a silent unspoken "white" appended to it? Sorry, not only do I disagree but I think that's a racist position. You know sometimes we're just plain "human."

Why would they celebrate the tragedy day anyway?

edit: end the doeuble standard.. why is a young black oet (Autum Ashante) not called for the open mouthed racist she is?

Would 'white entertainment television' be called racist or multicultural?

I'm proud to be causasian/european american, and its not racist initself to say 'white pride'

Oh come on, Neehai. How long have you known me on this forum? Have you ever known me to be anti-gay? I'm about as far from it as one can get without being gay. I couldn't care less if people are gay or straight or bi or tri. To anwer your question... being a cop is a job. Being gay is not an analogue to being a cop or a union worker or a member of a church. If I were to march in a SPD parade carrying a big sign that proclaimed "I'm attracted to women!" I imagine everyone would look at me like "so fucking what?!" and if equality is what you want then they should look at you the same way.

Speaking of the autum girl..I sincerely hope that Darwins family sues the living shit out of her father for slander, libel, and defamation...