NYC's St. Patrick's Day Parade Still Doesn't Want the Gays. And That's Their Right / Queerty

NYC's St. Patrick's Day Parade Still Doesn't Want the Gays. And That's Their Right / Queerty

The St. Patrick's Day Parade is a "private" event. It is not hosted or produced by the city or a government office. It is considered the "official" St. Patrick's Day Parade because it is the largest and most well-covered, but it is not the only. Being a private event, it maintains the freedom to discriminate — the same way any gay pride parade gives us to the freedom to exclude groups, sponsors, and citizens that terrorize, discriminate, or harass LGBTs. That's a fair policy, is rooted in the First Amendment, and one we entirely support, even if parade chairman John Dunleavy was stupid enough to say excluding queers was the same as excluding Nazis from an Israeli pride parade or the KKK from a black pride parade.

(The only grey area you'll find us wading through is Hibernians' use of taxpayer resources, including police security and post-parade sanitation workers cleaning the streets, to execute the event, although we understand the city is paid a fee to cover the costs.)...

But this isn't a debate over one of our "rights"; it's a debate over a privilege. Thankfully, and perhaps in spite of any of their delusions, the Hibernians do not represent all Irish people, and nor do their discriminatory parades.

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