Reflections on the long march to marching (Washington Blade 3/9/16)

(Photo: wnyc.org)

Read JF Mulligan's reflections on the (often inconvenient) history preceding this year's queer contingent in the St Patrick's Day parade:
http://www.washingtonblade.com/2016/03/09/st-pats-inclusion-at-last/

"There are many answers to why this change has come. In reality it is probably a combination of things. But let’s talk about it, hear people take responsibility and not back away or silence these narratives..."

"...Some of the many Irish values I cherish are to be contrary, to stand up for what is right, and to not be afraid when everyone else is walking down the road to stop and walk the other way."

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WE WON!

OMG!!!! We seriously won.

We are happy and relieved to announce that, after 25 years of struggle, we have won! The NYC St. Patrick’s Day parade has dropped its bigoted ban: an Irish LGBTQ contingent will finally march with its own banner in the parade next March 17th.

From the beginning, our demand has been for an Irish LGBTQ contingent to march behind their own banner saying who they are, like all other contingents. Today’s decision to invite the Lavender and Green Alliance does just that!

This is a victory for the grassroots organizing, civil disobedience, and street protest of the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization and its successor, Irish Queers. Protests held the line year after year where politics constantly failed. It’s also a victory for our beautiful queer and Irish community of support, stretching from New York City to Ireland and beyond.

The parade issue has never just been about LGBTQ people. Irish people’s struggles are part of our identity: challenges to religious bigotry, demands for women’s rights, Irish republicanism, and struggles against racism in New York and Ireland are irreducible parts of the Irish experience. Irish queers have often been at the forefront of those struggles. We are proud of the complexity of our lives and histories.

The desire to march and the protests against exclusion began as part of Irish queer people’s work to stem the homophobia-fueled tide of AIDS deaths, to push back on the power of the church in Ireland, and to end the pretense that Irish queers are not a central part of Irish culture and politics. Even as other battles were won, the parade’s ironclad combination of bigotry, religion, money, and city politics made it a long holdout against justice. We are tired but happy to see the end of it.

Our thanks: we’re thankful to the many ordinary New Yorkers who supported us over the last 25 years, as well as the many elected official who refused to march in the parade while we were left out. We’re thankful for David Dinkins and others who made real, tangible tries at giving Irish queer people their rightful place in the parade. And we’re grateful to and proud of the original members of the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization – who were also part of ACT UP, the Lesbian Avengers, and other important queer activist forces – who laid the groundwork for this victory.

We look forward to marching up Fifth Avenue with our community!

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City Limits: Mayor de Blasio can do more than boycott

Exposing the parade organizers' sideways cuts at a religious "free speech" right to discrimination, and the NYPD and City Hall's wildly underreported support for the bigoted message of the parade... And calling on a mayor who has shown he cares about this issue to step all the way up to end the excuses.

Mayor must reckon with St. Patrick's Parade Legacies
3/2/15

http://citylimits.org/2015/03/02/op-ed-mayor-must-reckon-with-st-patricks-parade-legacies/

"De Blasio's boycott alone may not be enough to end the discrimination, but he has the authority to do even more. The question of how to deal with the anti-gay parade has long been muddied by a 1993 court case refiguring it as a private, anti-gay Catholic procession. The mayor's boycott of the parade obscures another problem: City Hall has long supported the parade organizers' exclusion of Irish LGBT groups, and it hasn't stopped yet. If negotiations are underway – the mayor hasn't acknowledged them, but media reports have – then it's time to set the record straight on these two legacies. And it's time for the mayor to take the additional steps he can."

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What IrishCentral says, and what it means.

Photo: Niall O'Dowd's Facebook page, where he declares
himself an "expert in all things Irish and Irish American."

We've often thought of starting a section on this blog called "Why does the Irish Voice/IrishCentral  hate us now?" The publisher Niall O'Dowd, and his wife/columnist Debbie McGoldrick, have devoted a LOT of effort to dumping on us. Especially when we're winning a little on the parade issue, they inevitably print a story that talks about how we're not really part of the Irish community and don't "deserve" a spot in the parade.

We've never bothered to write those posts before. But now we're close -- really close -- to overturning the ban. And O'Dowd has predictably come for us with his claws out. So we'll take this on, hopefully just the one time.

--------------------------

What he says: Irish Queers doesn't have "real standing" in the Irish community, unlike another Irish gay voice who is "preferring to continue to negotiate."

What he means: Irish Queers is the follow-on group from the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization. O'Dowd was initially supportive of the group, which he claims to have started by publishing a meet-up notice in the Irish Voice in 1990. His vision, it seems, was that New York's downtrodden Irish LGBT immigrants would find each other, form a social circle, and have no politics other than his own. What happened instead was that Irish queer immigrants -- some of whom were already politicized and none of whom was interested in crowning O'Dowd as their rescuer -- formed a social and political group. ILGO challenged the Catholic Archdiocese, the sexism and racism of the New York Irish political establishment, and the regime of brutally enforced politeness that tried to muzzle queers, Irish republicans, and other protesters.

So when O'Dowd says Irish Queers don't have standing, he means we don't have standing with him, and with the entwined business, political, and religious power brokers who run official Irish politics.

He also means that the Irish community in New York is a tiny, closed circle of people who can be brought in or pushed out -- and not the expansive, bustling community of New Yorkers who share in different aspects of Irish culture, different relationships with Ireland, and wildly different politics. He means: "I own this b****!"

--------------------------

What he says: "Irish Queers is a fit-for-purpose once a year serial boycotter of the parade. Their website is an angry harangue against the parade and cops who are alleged racists. They are the Irish equivalent of Act Up."

What he means: O'Dowd knows nothing about Irish Queers that he doesn't read in the paper or on this blog, and even there we're only of interest to him when we talk about the parade. He's not interested in our work on antiracism from an Irish perspective in New York, nor our support for Irish activism on Palestine, nor activities like supporting political prisoners. But he does think we're Irish enough to be the Irish equivalent of ACT UP, so there's something. (P.S. A lot of those ungrateful ILGO queers he "saved" were also in ACT UP!)

He also means that challenging racist policing has nothing to do with Irish politics or community. Really, he thinks that!!

--------------------------
What he says: "Of all people, Brendan Fay and his organization deserve to march in the parade. They have earned it over the years, staging an alternative parade in Queens, being open and inclusive and above all involved on issues outside the parade such as immigration and Northern Ireland."

What he means: There are good queers and there are bad queers. Instead of asking politely for bigots to be nice to them, bad queers confront them on the street and in the press. Instead of negotiating deals in smoky rooms, they prefer public conversations about right and wrong. Good queers go to Mass, they attend fundraisers, they preserve the sanctity of the back room deal. Good queers are grateful to O'Dowd.

He means (it seems?) that homophobia and religious bigotry would have naturally faded under the withering pressure of an alternative parade. That the 25 years of protest at the parade, and of civil disobedience in which queers laid their bodies on the line against church and NYPD violence, were rude diversions by imposters "seeking a cheap headline."

He means he wants to rewrite the history, just at the moment that we win. He wants queer challenges to the NYPD, the church, the City, and the old conservative bastions of Irish New York fade to away. In their place, he wants the story to be that asking nicely is what did the trick. Fat chance.

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Op-ed in the Irish Echo -- Un-burying Irish queer lives

The Irish Echo has been running letters and opinion pieces challenging the NYC parade organizers to catch up with Irish culture, and drop their ridiculous ban. The miserableness of letting NBC gay employees march, but not Irish LGBTQ groups, is noted. Larry Kirwan wrote a particularly nice piece last week.

It's been impossible to post links to those pieces because the paper is not really online, but some clips are here.

Today the Irish Echo printed an Irish Queers op-ed. Given the effort to silence Irish Queers and sanitize queer Irish history, we really appreciate it! Here is the original version, which includes a few bits of history that didn't make it into the Echo.

Maybe you remember: the early 1990s were a time of queer political rising, much of which was centered in New York. I was growing up in New York then but I didn’t know much about it. When ACT UP protested Cardinal O’Connor’s campaign against condoms, I was in ninth grade about 40 blocks away, oblivious. A year later the Irish Lesbian & Gay Organization marched in the St. Patrick’s Day parade, unwelcomed by the parade committee but invited by a breakaway AOH Division 7. ILGO, joined by Mayor David Dinkins, were assaulted and taunted all along the parade route. I did hear about that. My grandmother had given me a t-shirt and I’d been wearing it to shreds – it said Life’s Too Short Not To Be Irish! On the back of it, in pearlescent fabric paint, I lettered it “I.L.G.O.” It was just in solidarity. Grown people tittering and panicking over the gays, and then bullying them on the street! I was indignant. Our English teacher, Kathleen somebody, raised her eyebrows high as I passed her in the hallway. That was the extent of my participation in the New York queer explosion of those years.

I landed in Belfast in 1994. I’d dropped out of college and needed to go somewhere. My family had roots in the North. By then I had come out myself. ACT UP, ILGO, and the Lesbian Avengers – all home to queer Irish émigrés who had worked in republican and pro-choice and feminist movements at home in the 1980s – had been churning out the queer Zeitgeist. Although I missed it in New York, I had finally caught it in college. Knowing nothing about the Irish queer political currents that carried me, I arrived in Belfast a queer activist.

Queer organizing in Belfast was small, constrained by everything from the Troubles to religion to the permanent absence of privacy. There was no queer group at Queen’s University, where I was enrolled; there had been one, it seemed, but no one would lend their name as a contact and it fell apart. I called a meeting, and the cast began to assemble. There was a young waif from Lurgan, always seen in his pancake makeup, bristling as joyfully with contempt for authority as with love for a crowd of laughing queers parading down the street toward Lavery’s. (He’s still my beloved favorite.) A tired man from West Belfast had had and was still having a very rough time. He usually came around with a younger friend, both of whom were always in battle over housing, always recently bashed and bruised. There was a great woman who – to my happiness – embraced the idea of direct action. She went on to be a union organizer. There were drummers, waitresses, revolutionaries, zine-makers, and more. It was a terrific crowd.

When the term ended and I was leaving, again no one would lend their name to the group. We brainstormed. We eureka’d: a telephone number without a name was just as good, as long as someone could always answer it. A telephone needed to be somewhere – we needed a space. We could do that. If we disbanded now, no worries at all. We’d gather our resources and meet back up in a year, and then we would make it happen.

I came home. Giuliani was mayor, Bratton was police commissioner, and together they were attacking poor people, people of color, people with AIDS, and any activists who protested. This particular time in Ireland – on the heels of feminism, the frustrated abortion rights movement, and the ongoing power of the Catholic church; and in the North, following the Hunger Strikes and Save Ulster from Sodomy – saw many politicized queers exiled to New York. Here they had formed Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization, joined ACT UP, and cofounded the Lesbian Avengers. ACT UP was at a fever pitch trying to build and protect public supports for people with AIDS, and fight the biases used to justify letting them die. The Lesbian Avengers were challenging the erasure of lesbians from history and school curricula, with the slogan “I was a lesbian child.” ILGO had decided it should march in the St. Patrick’s Day parade, the biggest celebration in the world of Irishness and the Irish diaspora experience. All three groups shared the logic that making queers invisible did violence both to the past and literally, daily, to queers. The parade organizers, representing the closed, church-bound Ireland from which they had come, could not bring themselves to admit that Irish queers were real, much less a central part of Irish life and history. The parade had become a flashpoint for struggles over queerness, religion, policing, immigrant community politics, and the City’s complicity in homophobia and violence. In truth, Irish politics and queer politics had never been separate; only the connections obscured. Now the ties were laid absolutely bare.

I went to an ILGO meeting early in 1995 to ask whether ILGO could help fundraise for a queer space in Belfast. It’s a joke now, that memory; fundraising was never going to happen, ILGO was not that kind of girl. But I was drawn in. The meetings were more than planning sessions. They were multigenerational in-gatherings of queers that taught politics. They broke with good manners in the face of crisis that was killing queers. They rejected the idea that dialogue and demands always had to be reasonable, and that peaceful activism couldn’t express rage toward people who were responsible for terrible things. They taught collectivism, building ideas and plans together, sharing responsibility, and passing along skills, difficult as the meetings often were. They taught that it was important and possible to do things without funding – we never stopped hearing that the Lesbian Herstory Archives bought its Brooklyn townhouse with $1 and $5 donations mailed in from lesbians everywhere – and that queer groups especially always had people with an incredible range of experience, skills and access. Most critically, they taught that it was possible to do things that sounded impossible: add queer history and sex ed to the NYC public school curriculum, or force the US government to invent better medications for HIV. (No one dreamed it would be easier to make the US government deal with AIDS and homophobia than to get an Irish gay group into the Irish parade.) Later, when I’d left that space, the exact same things felt less possible; it had been a communal effect.

In 1997 I was in Belfast again, as promised. I’d raised no money, but had bought boxes and boxes of used and remaindered books from queer shops. I started meeting my old friends for coffee, and they found other people to join in. We deliberately talked about the community space project as if it were already happening. (That was advice from Dermot Burke, who had opened An Béal Bocht in Riverdale a few years before. It was fantastic advice.) We made a primitive website announcing the project, and put up signs. More and more Belfast queers came to planning meetings. There were more musicians and more waitresses, social workers and civil servants, an East Belfast taxi driver, a witch, a student union president, a disproportionate number of Jews, students, more revolutionaries, a farmer, and many, many queers without an occupation. Before long the whole thing was real.

Queer Space opened in January 1998, in a space rented with a small loan, at the bottom of Botanic Avenue. On a crowded pre-opening workday we painted it purple, and someone drew a mural in the style of Keith Haring. We set up a coffee pot and a donation basket. Two women from the Shankill took on the task of keeping both full. Emma Donaghue sent a set of her novels to Queer Space that week, and we unboxed them along with the tattered books I’d brought over. We hung a bit of handkerchief art painted by a queer republican prisoner. Two West Belfast women delivered a huge amount of comfortable furniture. We were home.

Queer Space was intensively modeled on the direct action collectivism of the New York groups. To publicize the opening, we sent a press release; the reporter called Ian Paisley for comment, and the article generated a short controversy. In that way our publicity was taken care of and visitors streamed in. We made a mission statement and rules by consensus, and settled on the name Queer Space after hours of debate in a packed room. We took up direct action, wheatpasting Belfast with signs about lesbians, protesting Newt Gingrich’s visit to North Belfast, convening queers and Asian immigrants who had started to come under attack, and truly I can’t remember what else. The coffee box paid the rent, and it paid back the start-up loan less than a year after Queer Space opened its doors.

When Matthew Shepard was killed and queers in New York City were standing off against riot police on horseback, I came home. Some of the other Queer Space folk moved on to more official politics, especially when the Good Friday Agreement made queers a protected minority. Queer Space carries on these 16 years later. I would claim that it changed everything in Belfast; that it opened up possibilities at a time when people were ready for a change, and other stars were aligning too. Queer Space still turns out Belfast queers for antiracist action, most recently in support of Anna Lo, the Stormont MLA hounded out of office by anti-Chinese racism. Queer Space always comes out for Irish Queers on St. Patrick’s Day parade protests, although Belfast queers are incredulous that we’re still not allowed to march. Funny how the tables have turned.

The story of Irish queers and the parade is really the story of the transit between Ireland and New York of ideas about liberation. It’s the story of how Irishness hasn’t been only Catholic or white or male, nor especially polite, nor limited to venues marked “Irish.” These are true and important stories whether anyone likes them or not. When the parade exclusion comes up, we’re often told we’re not really part of the Irish community, as if it’s that – rather than homophobia – that keeps us out. It’s a pitiful attempt at diversion, but there’s something in it. After two decades of being shoved out of Irish history by the New York parade, why at all would Irish LGBTQ folk stick around the official Irish American community? We have not. Our communities don’t do dinner dances, nor play golf, nor elect Irish American candidates to office. Just as queers have made their own spaces forever, we make our own worlds here. They are Irish worlds in spite of begrudgers’ wishes to the contrary. The transit between queer Ireland and queer New York is as vibrant as ever. Look for it.

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In the press: Ireland rises against the NYC St. Patrick's parade and "time warp" homophobia

[These are in chronological order. Don't miss the broadcast clip at bottom!]

'Patrick's Day is not about sexuality' - Taoiseach Enda Kenny
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/patricks-day-is-not-about-sexuality-taoiseach-enda-kenny-30021187.html
"The Taoiseach came under fire in the Dail for agreeing to participate in the famous Fifth Avenue Procession - which has been criticised for its ban on posters promoting LGBT rights...Mr Kenny was asked by People Before Profit TD if he would wear a badge symbolising the LGBT community. He responded by stating he would be happy to wear a shamrock, which he says symbolises Irishness."

Split deepens in Irish government over taking part in New York parade
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Split-deepens-in-Irish-government-over-taking-part-in-New-York-parade-.html
"The split in the Irish government over attitudes to marching in the St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York has deepened with Deputy Leader and Foreign Affairs Minister Eamon Gilmore backing the decision of his cabinet minister colleague Joan Burton not to march. He is now at odds with his leader Enda Kenny, who has made it clear that he will march on the day and that the rules of the parade are a matter for the organizers."

Why do Irish LGBT's need a banner in the St. Pat's Parade?
http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/cahirodoherty/Why-do-Irish-LGBTs-need-a-banner-in-the-St-Pats-Parade.html
"Many readers have asked this week why Irish gay groups want to carry an identifying banner in the Saint Patrick's Day Parade in New York? Here's the short answer: because if you are not seen you are not heard. And when you are neither seen nor heard, bad things can happen to you without anyone noticing. Gay people know this, but apparently quite a few others need to be reminded. As the increasingly thuggish moves in Russia and Uganda and Nigeria have been reminding us for months now, legally enforced silence is biggest international enemy of LGBT rights."

NY parade is perfect time for Enda to take a stand:
The time-warp views of our Yankee cousins on homosexuality need to be thrown off the float
http://www.independent.ie/world-news/americas/ny-parade-is-perfect-time-for-enda-to-take-a-stand-30013867.html
"AS SAINT Patrick's Day approaches, and Enda readies the bowl of shamrock, it's important that the 'brand Ireland' gospel is spread throughout America. And so, in a way, you could say that the spat over gays and the St Patrick's Day parade in New York has come at just the right time."

Secret behind who really runs the NYC Saint Patrick’s Day Parade
Spoiler alert: it's not much of a secret.
http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/niallodowd/Secret-behind-who-really-runs-the-NYC-Saint-Patricks-Day-Parade-.html#ixzz2tJdSzoug

Why New York mayor is right to cold shoulder this St Patrick's parade 
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/lindy-mcdowell/why-new-york-mayor-is-right-to-cold-shoulder-this-st-patricks-parade-30001335.html
"Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who claims Irish ancestry (doesn't everyone?), got around the parades issue cutely enough by attending two in one day. The main one which bans what Mr Donohue would see as gays "drawing attention to themselves," and another elsewhere in the city which welcomes them, rainbow flags and all... De Blasio's stance...has once again turned the international spotlight on a ban that would appear to be totally at odds with a 21st century city that so prides itself on open-mindedness and liberalism. It says something that Vladimir Putin would feel entirely comfortable with the current St Paddy's parade restrictions."

NY St. Patrick's parade walks alone in banning gay groups
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/NYC-St-Patricks-Day-Parade-falls-far-behind-others-on-LGBT-stance.html
"Until recent years, it was joined by the India Day Parade, the Celebrate Israel Parade, and the Chinese Lunar New Year Parade, with the annual lead-up to each celebration marked by a heated debate much like the one happening now...'Every time one of New York City's ethnic parades says yes to the LGBT community it makes it harder for the shrinking number of parades, like St. Patrick's Day, that have said no, to continue to say no.'"

Burton criticised by colleagues for her decision to boycott New York parade
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/burton-criticised-by-colleagues-for-her-decision-to-boycott-new-york-parade-29996899.html
"Ms Burton yesterday said she would not be attending the parade because of its exclusion of gay and lesbian groups... Taoiseach Enda Kenny refused to take the same course and said he intends to march in next month's event... Fine Gael TD Jerry Buttimer, who last week spoke of being beaten and spat at for being gay, said he would prefer it if Mr Kenny did not take part. Social Protection Minister Joan Burton also heaped pressure on Mr Kenny by claiming that she would boycott the event until it became 'more inclusive.'"

Gay rights activists urge Taoiseach not to march in St Patrick’s Day parade: National Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Federation make plea to Enda Kenny
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/gay-rights-activists-urge-taoiseach-not-to-march-in-st-patrick-s-day-parade-1.1686829
"Olivia McEvoy, chair of the National LGBT Federation, said it would be “inappropriate and wrong” for uniformed Garda members to march in the parade as it sends out “a hugely negative message to LGBT people” and damages efforts to establish police relations with the LGBT community."

Irish Minister refuses to march in New York St Patrick’s Day Parade
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irish-Minister-refuses-to-march-in-New-York-St-Patricks-Day-Parade.html
'There comes a time when you have to say to the organizers we have had enough of this discrimination and division. In an ideal world, no Taoiseach (PM) or no minister should march in the parade. For me the big issue, why is the ban still there, in a progressive city like New York?'"

Buttimer would ‘prefer’ if Kenny didn’t attend New York parade
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/buttimer-would-prefer-if-kenny-didn-t-attend-new-york-parade-1.1686205

Why De Blasio made the right call on the St. Patrick’s Day Parade
http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/cahirodoherty/De-Blasio-made-the-right-call-on-the-St-Patricks-Day-Parade.html
"The world looks very different than it did in 1990 when this squabble was really getting started and crucially, so does United States federal and state law. Those who still support the continuing ban and even those who have simply grown complacent over the stalemate have failed to recognize that the nation is in a new moment, one that has long since left them behind. Some Irish observers have suggested that the mayor should have attempted to mediate the dispute. Instead of taking the unprecedented and historic step of blankly refusing to participate. He could have saved our blushes by involving himself in the argument, even though the parade organizers have given no indication they are of a mind to bring it to an end. After twenty-five years of shameful stalemate, I’m not sure what concessions these observers think he can actually win? It’s doubtful that even Senator George Mitchell could produce a new path forward."

Irish leader says he will march in New York St Patrick’s Day parade
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/politics/Irish-leader-Enda-Kenny-will-march-in-New-York-parade-despite-boycott-appeal-from-gay-rights-groups.html

Kenny won't bow to gay pressure on St. Patrick's Day parade
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/kenny-wont-bow-to-gay-pressure-on-st-patricks-day-parade-29987710.html

Lyons says ministers should not participate in NY parade
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/lyons-says-ministers-should-not-participate-in-ny-parade-1.1683603

Beaten, spat at and harassed: Buttimer tells Dáil in homophobia debate
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/beaten-spat-at-and-harassed-buttimer-tells-dail-in-homophobia-debate-258004.html

Spat on for being gay: TDs reveal homophobia pain
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/spat-on-for-being-gay-tds-reveal-homophobia-pain-29987735.html

Gay rights groups urge Govt to boycott New York parade
http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0206/502698-gay-rights-new-york-parade/
"Speaking on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, Brian Sheehan, Director of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN), called on the Government not to take part in the event...A number of lesbian, gay and bisexual rights organisations have called on Taoiseach Enda Kenny to boycott the event. Speaking on the same station, Scott de Buitléir, editor of online LGBT magazine Eile, said he hoped Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, in particular, would not participate in the parade, given his reputation among the gay community as an outspoken promoter of gay rights."

Second strike by NY Mayor de Blasio against Irish
http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/niallodowd/Second-strike-by-NY-Mayor-de- Blasio-against-Irish.html
Another very silly article from Niall O'Dowd (in which he publicly wishes that de Blasio would play both sides?!) but the comments section is great... "De Blasio had the perfect out on the parade, one that his predecessor Michael Bloomberg took – march in the Irish gay parade a couple of weekends before March 17, and then on Fifth Avenue on the day itself."

Mayor de Blasio makes wrong call on Patrick’s Day parade
http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/niallodowd/Mayor-de-Blasio-makes-wrong-call-on-Patricks-Day-parade.html#ixzz2sTaofV84
A ridiculous article in which the Irish Voice's Niall O'Dowd claims "The original gay group was the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization, formed to help gay young Irish immigrants here cope with depression and exploitation issues" and is taken to task by ILGO members in reply. Since Irish Queers members' comments didn't make it past the moderator, one wonders whether the comments will be preserved, so here are a few:

Anne Maguire
As a founding member of ILGO and someone who was involved from the beginning for many years I am, yet again, gob-smacked by this article and its myriad inaccuracies. ILGO was not formed by a bunch of "exploited" and "depressed" Irish people but quite a broad-based group of people from North and South, of various political persuasions, class backgrounds and with a wide variety of interests. I don't doubt the writer's "friend" was depressed but we formed the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization not the Irish Exploited and Depressed Gay Organization.

ILGO was not hijacked by anyone - in fact, we were cheered on, by one and all, until the parade issue got too complicated, taking you out of your comfort zone as far as gay people are concerned. So, you manufactured the falsehood of a radical coup which you regurgitate whenever this issue arises. The truth is that the original people who started ILGO, stood our ground by deciding, as a group, not to go back into the closet and if that's hardcore then bully for us!

Also, you have some nerve stating that we had no interest in Irish issues. Even if you do not believe that equality for the LGBT community is a legitimate Irish issue ILGO was full of people who did work in other areas as well as people who could not give a toss about any issue, Irish or otherwise. Rather than revising history it would serve your readers better if you got over the fact that ILGO was not what you expected, or wanted. Better still, go be a reporter and find out if the AOH is ready to change it's tune.

Niall O'Dowd
Hannah it was as a result of an article i wrote abut a young Irish gay man in difficulty that ILGO was formed. I spoke at their first meeting and heavily advertised it as I felt strongly it was needed. The pity is no such group exists today because it was taken over by some who wanted to make the parade the issue -- and they did

Paul O'Dwyer
I was at the first, and probably every, meeting of ILGO over a period of several years, and I hate to minimize your role in it, but it was not formed because of depression or isolation or exploitation or whatever it is you want to call it, or because you knew of an Irish gay person in difficulty. There were a whole variety of people involved, with a diverse range of interests, from political to social to whatever it is they wanted it to be. It was the vehemence with which so many Irish and Irish-American people and institutions expressed their hatred of gay people once we applied to march in the parade that caused us to feel exploited, depressed and isolated, and that ultimately ended up defining the group.

None of wanted the parade to be "the issue", other than that it was an institution in which we rightly felt entitled to participate fully and freely, like everyone else. It is unfortunate that you think we shouldn't have done so.

Anne Maguire
I was at the first meeting of ILGO and Mr. O'Dowd, you were not present. You did not start ILGO either - I responded to an ad in the Irish Voice newspaper as did most others present at the first meeting. You may have placed that ad but nevertheless, rewriting our history, not your's, is pretty arrogant. The parade became an issue when ILGO refused to be beaten back into the closet - I would argue that the AOH made the parade an issue and over the years it became an "issue" for all kinds of people and organizations for various reasons - your publication included. I believe you did not and do not like the idea of gay people who are not ashamed of themselves for being gay, or Irish for that matter. It's okay if we're "victims" and "in difficulty" but not okay if we're perfectly intact and able and willing to stand up for ourselves. Sadly, all these years later nothing much has changed.

[BROADCAST] Gay rights groups do not want Government representatives at New York St. Patrick’s Day parade
http://www.tv3.ie/news_sub_page.php?video_id=75850&locID=1.2.883
"Gay rights group say they don't want government representatives to attend the St. Patrick's Day parade in New York. The Taoiseach and Tanaiste had earlier claimed that they had the backing of the gay community. It's a huge story all over the United States. For the first time in 20 years, the Mayor of New York is boycotting the St. Patrick's Day parade because it bans marchers who carry gay pride [sic] signs."

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Vintage video: 1991 & 1992 St. Patrick's parade

Lest we forget where this all began, here's video from the 1991 and 1992 NYC St. Patrick's Parade. 1991 is the year ILGO marched in spite of the ban, with Mayor Dinkins, as guests of a progressive AOH contingent. The experience was so awful that ILGO refused to march again without full status -- as a contingent of out queers marching in their own community's parade. (Since then, much of the Irish and Irish American community has overcome their homophobia.)

The next year, 1992, was first of many in which our protests were attacked or quashed and criminalized by the NYPD. In 1993, the parade organizers defined the parade in court as a "private, religious procession" in order to secure the right to their "explicitly anti-gay message."

NYC police have no such right, so our protest focuses on them. The NYPD has never been neutral on the question of queers and the NYC St. Patrick's Day parade. Every year that they march, we're reminded that we only matter to them when we're forcing their hand.

Many thanks to Lisa for digitizing this footage in 2014!

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From the Archives: Bronx Irish reject crusty old homophobia

New York Times, January 17, 1993

The Talk of the North Bronx; Irish Voice Wide Passions Over the St. Patrick's Day Parade

By DEBORAH SONTAG
As a soft snow fell over the North Bronx, Patrick McKnight lamented the Irish community's preoccupation with a celebration turning sour with controversy.

"Shouldn't we be more concerned about getting the English out of Ireland than getting the homosexuals out of the St. Patrick's Day parade?" Mr. McKnight asked as he sipped coffee at the Cafe An Beal Bocht in Riverdale.

Nonetheless, Mr. McKnight, a 26-year-old emigrant from Dublin, did not hesitate to hurl himself into the parade debate. And neither did anyone else approached on Thursday on the wintry streets and in the overheated churches and cafes of Norwood and Riverdale.

For however piddling the controversy seemed to some, it touched on larger issues for many -- in particular, the fading authority of the Catholic Church over young people and the waning power of the Irish in New York City politics.

"People say it's not our town anymore, and believe me, this is another nail in the coffin," said William O'Meara, 50, owner of the Greentree Restaurant on Bainbridge Avenue in Norwood.

Mr. O'Meara belongs to the Ancient Order of Hibernians, which has run the parade for 151 years and steadfastly refuses to allow the Irish Gay and Lesbian Organization to march.

Earlier this month, the city intervened, granting a parade permit to a new, conciliatory committee that aims to include both the gay group and the Hibernians.

But while some Irish-Americans were thrilled to see power wrested from the Hibernians, many others plan to boycott the March 17 parade if the Hibernians do not win a court battle to regain control.

For now, many in the city's Irish community are not pleased; not with the fighting among themselves, and not with what some see as the city's intrusiveness. In interviews, many talked as if the parade were a referendum on changing times, as if its fate were somehow linked to their future as a community. Shaking Up the Status Quo

Rushing in from the morning chill, Marie Noonan warmed herself over tea and a raisin scone at the Traditional Irish Bakery in Norwood.

"I would be in favor of the gay people," said Ms. Noonan, a 26-year-old who immigrated four years ago. She noted that a gay group marched without incident in last year's St. Patrick's Day Parade in County Cork.

"It's about time the Ancient Order was shook up," she said, smiling. "They've had too much of a stranglehold on everything in the Irish community."

The parade debate reveals a fissure between generations, Ms. Noonan said. And at another table, Eileen Siegelman, a vivacious 74-year-old native of Galway, seemed to prove her point.

"If the homosexuals want to have their private affairs, go ahead," she said. "Don't make a splash of it. They're spoiling a whole parade, and a whole day."

Tucking a tuft of white hair into her beret, Ms. Siegelman continued. "Why do people want to come in and mess up an institution?" she asked. Her voice trailed off. "Everything in life has been messed up. Sad, isn't it?" 'Down the Tubes'

Several blocks away, in front of the Copley Apartments, Donald E. Powell and his neighbor, Thomas McInerney, were enjoying the blustery weather and bemoaning the disintegration of society. "I think the parade is going the same way New York City is going," said Mr. Powell, a retired mail carrier. "Straight down the tubes. Don't you think, Tom?"

Mr. McInerney said: "I shouldn't comment. My wife says I talk too much." Mr. Powell elaborated on his thesis. "The parade is just like society," he said. "They're giving too many rights to too many people. What's all this jumping out of the closet and making demands? It weakens the structures.

"Since World War II, down, down, down. Everything is going down." A Quick Prayer

John Hourican, a 23-year-old security guard and nutrition student, dashed into St. Brendan's Catholic Church for a quick prayer.

He paused in the vestibule as the pews were filling up with retirees for the noon Mass.

"A lot of older people want to stick with tradition, which kind of means hiding from the things that are really going on these days," Mr. Hourican said. "But discrimination isn't very Christian. What's the big deal if gay people march in a parade?"

Marie McGreevy, a retiree, thinks it is a very big deal, indeed. Everyone should march behind the banner of their Irish county, and not the banner of their sexuality, she said.

"My father, who came from the other side, must be turning over in his grave," Mrs. McGreevy said. "Tell you the truth, the Irish never thought they had, you know, any gay."

Mrs. McGreevy was joined by Elizabeth Pryor and Frances Miller.

"God help them," Mrs. Pryor said, referring to gay people in general.

"The Church condemns their life style, so they can't march in a Catholic celebration," Mrs. Miller said. "It's that simple." 'Honor St. Patrick'

At the Village Pub on Bainbridge Avenue, the owner, John Flynn, said that his customers, "a regular bunch of guys and girls," were planning to boycott the parade.

"We just think homosexuals don't have any place," he said. "The whole point is to honor St. Patrick."

Down the street, as lunchtime was ending at the Greentree Restaurant, Mr. O'Meara, the owner, took a seat and apologized for his demeanor.

"Usually I'm very vocal, but I'm so down about this whole thing," said Mr. O'Meara, a member of Hibernian Division Nine. "It just seems like the beginning of the end for the Irish in this city. I feel bad."

Mr. O'Meara blamed Mayor David N. Dinkins for "stepping on our parade."

"He's made a political decision in favor of his gay constituency, and it's nothing short of Catholic bashing," Mr. O'Meara said. "First the Rainbow curriculum, now this."

Mr. O'Meara pointed out that he did not consider himself a gay basher, and that he has even had gay employees at the restaurant -- "although maybe you shouldn't mention that."

He said he had suggested that the members of the Irish Gay and Lesbian Organization march with lavender armbands or sashes. But that idea was rejected, because "this is war," he said.

Everyone he knows will boycott "Mr. Dinkins's parade," Mr. O'Meara said. "So what he's going to have is a parade of misfits." Where to Draw the Line?

In the late afternoon at the Cafe An Beal Bocht in Riverdale, Rosann MacDonnell, a 29-year-old immigrant, prepared a cappuccino and discussed her disdain for the whole controversy.

"They're making more a mountain out of a molehill," she said. "What the Ancient Order needs is a couple of members under the age of 65."

In the back of the cafe, Mary Brosnan, who works as a home help aide, was far less jocular. "I feel like crying now myself," she said. "It was always such a beautiful tradition and this is kind of spoiling it."

But back up front, Ms. MacDonnell continued. "If they want to march, let 'em march," she said.

Her fellow employee, Siobhan McCormack, 22, was stunned. "You think anybody should have the right?" she said. "What if people wanted to walk naked?"

"Let them, let them," Ms. MacDonnell said.

"I don't know," Ms. McCormack said. "Where do you draw the line?"

Ms. MacDonnell answered: "At the end of Fifth Avenue."

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How ILGO & ACT UP went to Belfast

Belfast's queer community center, Queer Space turned 10 this year! So we were thinking back about its history... which starts in New York, in the tense, grubby meetings of ILGO and ACT UP. They asked for a birthday letter (although it was started as a collective, I was technically the mommy. Ten points for Irish Queers!) so here are snippets from it. You can read the rest on mishmoshkeleh.

Queer Space is ... a direct offshoot of the truly revolutionary direct action organizing of [ILGO and] ACT UP – the movement built on the lesson of AIDS ... that we had to stand up and demand some space in the world, and stop worrying about being polite and safe, or we would die. ... Queer Space has transformed Belfast just by existing. It’s just a crazy example of how taking the risk of breaking silence, saying things out loud that are maybe considered irrelevant or obnoxious (like “Hey, I’m queer!”), can change everything.

-snip-
[In 1995] I went along to an ILGO meeting and told them about the plan to make a new queer space in Belfast, and asked if they’d help fund it. I thought I was very bold going there, and I also remember that the meeting was intimidating as hell. It was nothing like Belfast... These were Irish immigrants who were talking about challenging the Cardinal’s homophobia, which seemed unbelievably brazen. Their analysis ... was based on big ideas about democracy, anti-imperialism that included Irish republicanism, and breaking old chains like the one that says people should behave like good little boys and girls even as they’re marginalized... When I asked about money for a queer library in Belfast, they looked a bit blank, said they had no funding themselves – and got right back to the subject of how to change New York.

I stayed anyway. I never asked about money again...[but by] the time I ... was ready to go back [to Belfast], ILGO and ACT UP had completely changed my sense of what was possible.

-snip-
The plan was ...to run an organization without bosses... to politicize queer identity, to explicitly refuse to hide the existence and nature of this queer place. And to sit down with each other to make deliberate decisions about what a Belfast queer community should look like aside from a pub crew or a population targeted for health outreach.

-snip-
[1997] We took Belfast by storm, hanging flyers for events and sometimes just flyers about the fact that queers existed; we posted the word “queer” all over the city. We got lots of media attention, sent out press releases, maintained e-mail lists, made connections with queer groups in other places. We formed a little direct action cell called Queer Action Belfast which had a particularly great logo, and made t-shirts, and protested Newt Gingrich and posted signs asking “Do you love the lesbians in your life?” To me, it was like the sun coming up.

(More: "Queer Space, you old dog!" on mishmoshkeleh.com)

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What ever happened to the Irish American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston?

I was reading this article in Bay Windows about the GLAD's (Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders) 30th anniversary and it made me wonder.....what ever happened to GLIB aka the Irish American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston? If you go to almost any online search engine and try to find information on Irish/Irish American LGBT issues, information about Supreme Court case Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Group of Boston will be in your top results.

Here in NYC, it has been 17 years now that queers have been fighting to be recognized as members of the Irish/Irish American community. Though the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization (ILGO) is now defunct, the parade issue is still very much alive. Brendan Fay (a former ILGO member) and the Lavender and Green Alliance created an inclusive St. Patrick's Day Parade in Queens in 2000 to celebrate "the diversity of the Irish and Irish American communities." Irish Queers, an organization that grew out of ILGO beginning in 1996, continues to organize the annual parade protest in addition to being active on other social justice issues.

As an ex-pat of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the last I remember, queers could march in the Cambridge St. Patrick's Day Parade.....but what about protesting about the Southie parade? If you have any information about what happened to GLIB or any other information about Irish LGBT issues in Boston (or any other US city), give us a shout. We'd love to hear from you :-)

(Picture was found here)

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