Organizers of the Staten Island St. Patrick’s Day parade continue to exclude gay groups from marching, the only Irish parade in city that continues to do so. The decision grows more baffling, and damaging, with each passing year.
One parade organizer recently told that the parade is a “non-sexual identification parade, and that’s that.”
In years past, others have pointed to Catholic Church teachings against homosexuality as a justification for prohibiting gays from marching openly.
A separate committee organizes the parade, but the event is identified with a local chapter of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a Roman Catholic fraternal order.
LGBT groups now participate in St. Patrick’s Day parades both large and small across the New York region and the United States. But in Staten Island, the city’s least populous and most conservative borough, the parade has not changed.
LOL Staten Island? The only reason anyone outside of New York has even heard of the place is because it is the terminus of the free 25 minute ferry ride that sails by the Statue of Liberty. You get on in Manhattan in Battery Park, get out your cameras, photograph the Statue of Liberty, get off in Staten Island, and get back on, and take it back to Manhattan. It is easily the most forgettable part of New York City!
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