Though New York’s Staten Island has not fully decided to cast aside its antiquated exclusionary rules and welcome LGBTQ+ groups into the borough’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade, a separate inclusive parade will now allow these groups.
In recent years, one of New York’s most controversial boroughs has sparked a whole lot of debate in maintaining the hateful exclusion of LGBTQ+ groups and people from its biggest parade.
According to CBS News, Staten Island parade organizers have been denying applications from groups like Pride Center of Staten Island and the Gay Officers Action League for years. And despite many LGBTQ+ friendly Staten Island residents’ boycott of the parade, nothing has changed.
Last year, Carol Bullock, executive director of the Pride Center said “once again, we were denied an opportunity to march in the parade. Let me be very clear: this is discriminatory and vile.”
In Manhattan the St. Patrick’s Day Parade only became LGBTQ+ inclusive in 2014, and Staten Island has had a decade to follow suit. Though the LGBTQ+ community is still banned from attending the original parade, a celebration of their own will be entirely LGBTQ+ friendly. The new parade is slated for St. Patrick’s Day, March 17.
Those boycotting the original parade include Staten Island District Attorney, Michael McMahon. “We join the overwhelming majority of our neighbors in expressing our relief at the news that an inclusive St. Patrick’s Day parade will finally be held on Staten Island, and we send our sincere thanks to the Forest Avenue Business Improvement District for taking on this tremendous responsibility,” said McMahon in a joint statement with other Staten Island economic and social figures, according to the New York Post.
“We look forward to once again donning our green, sharing perhaps a pint of Guinness, and kicking off a St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Staten Island that will not exclude participants based on who they are or who they love.”
