Good News for Irish LGBT waiting for Equality in NYC for St. Patricks Day

THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK

OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS

City Hall 

New York, NY 10007

(212) 788-7116

**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**

September 3, 2014

Contact: (212) 788-7116

Release #: 101-2014

Statement by Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito

Re: Ban Lifted from LGBT Groups Marching In St. Patrick's Day Parade

In solidarity with LGBT groups, Council contingent did not march in this year's parade  

"This is a welcome first step and a good day for New Yorkers who believe in fairness, equality, and human rights. For far too long the St. Patrick's Day Parade excluded New Yorkers just because of who they to love. I am happy organizers finally realized that this parade is better when all are invited."

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A word from the Publisher:

For too long bigots and haters have taken charge of St Patrick’s parade without any major opposition from where it matters, City Hall. 

This is something we never were able to get because it takes a mayor that truly believes in equality to convince those that receive a license to prepare and do the event, that any major parade should not exclude members of that group because of sexual orientation which if anybody free of bigotry thinks about it would simply make no sense to exclude anyone for that reason. What business is it of the people in charge of the parade to make decisions based on the sex lives of marchers????????? This is gone for too long,  sustained by the hypocrisy of past mayors in counting one that was even gay. 

A word for thought: It’s usually the gays in the closet like mayor Koch and others dead or still alive and obstructing that have presented and still present the biggest injustices based on sexual orientation. Thanks goodness we have a straight mayor now but also being straight in the way fairness should be,  inclusive. Fairness in any endeavor brings the best out of everyone. Those making a lot of money on this parade should be happy to know that now there are more people to do business with with thanks to fairness. The last mayor we had was a late comer. Opposed to same sex marriage and eventually being convinced that this was the way to go politicly. He never pushed, he just passed the buck to the organizers like if he didn’t have anything to do with it. The republican (Rudy) before the past mayor who was carry the banner for the Neo-GOP conservatism that brought George Bush to power. Besides he was too busy making sure people got jay walking tickets and the police was made in to another CIA even sending NYC finest to other countries and cities (not like NYC) to learn how to fight the occupants when they protest the military police there.

We take this victory with a grain of salt thinking of how long it took and all because we didn’t have a mayor that supported us. We got lip service with the last mayor but that is all we got. We will be gracious and thank the people that work so hard and our current 109th Mayor Bill de Blasio who is turning out to be pretty good in fairness for all.

How New York LGBT responded to the news today:

“While this development is long overdue, inviting one group to march at the exclusion of all others … is a far stretch from the full inclusion we deserve,” Schaefer said.

Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the gay-rights group GLAAD, said parade organizers – who announced other gay groups “While this development is long overdue, inviting one group to march at the exclusion of all others … is a far stretch from the full inclusion we deserve,” Schaefer said.

 “Discrimination has no place on America’s streets, least of all on Fifth Avenue,” she said. “As an Irish-Catholic American, I look forward to a fully inclusive St. Patrick’s Day Parade that I can share with my wife and children, just as my own parents shared with me.”

The New York City Saint Patrick’s Day Parade Committee said Wednesday that OUT@NBCUniversal, an LGBT resource group at the company that broadcasts the parade, would be marching up Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue on March 17 under an identifying banner. In the past, organizers said gays were free to march in the nation’s biggest and oldest St. Patrick’s Day Parade but only with other groups and not with banners identifying them as gay.could apply for the parade in 2016 and afterward – “must be held accountable” to that plege.