Press release: At Tues. parade protest, plans to celebrate Irish LGBTQ icons, Bronx cheer for corporate sponsors

PRESS RELEASE – for immediate release

Date: March 15, 2015

Contact: Emmaia Gelman on 917-517-3627

Irish LGBTQ Protest of Exclusion Continues at 2015 NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade

Irish Queers welcome support from NYC officials & Ireland; condemn corporate sponsors.

Press Conference: Tues. March 17, 10:45am at Fifth Ave below W. 57^th St.

Protest: Tues. March 17, 11am-1pm, same location.

Irish Queers and allies will protest the exclusion of Irish LGBTQ groups from the St. Patrick's Day Parade this Tuesday, March 17 at 11am. This year’s protest will feature images of cherished figures whose Irish or Irish-American and LGBTQ identities are inseparable – all of whom would be closeted or banned by the parade organizers.

Irish Queers is proud to count on the support of Mayor de Blasio and the City Council, who have again withdrawn their participation from this year’s parade, because the parade continues to marginalize and shame Irish LGBTQ people. We’re also proud of the ongoing support for inclusion coming from Ireland – gay and straight – where New York’s bigoted parade is widely regarded as an embarrassment. 

The parade committee's admission this year of the gay/straight alliance of their corporate sponsor, NBC, is not inclusion of Irish LGBTQ groups, but more exclusion. The demand has always been for Irish LGBTQ groups to march under banners that say who we are without shame – not corporate groups, marching behind an “OUT” banner that avoids mentioning “lesbian”, “gay”, “bisexual”, or “transgender.”

“There is no logic to letting OUT@NBC march except as another way to keep Irish LGBTQ groups out,” said Gaby Cryan of Irish Queers. “The parade organizers have claimed a right to discriminate against us because they’re running it as a Catholic procession. But even the Cardinal calls it ‘a celebration of all things Irish.’”

Guinness and Heineken have joined NBC in supporting the discriminatory parade while also claiming that they oppose discrimination.

“Guinness and Heineken, after dropping their sponsorship of the antigay parade for just one year, have used NBC’s trick as an excuse to resume sponsoring it. It’s totally perverse that Heineken has offered to put money into the inclusive Queens parade as well as the antigay parade. Playing both sides harms the LGBTQ community, and adds insult to injury,” said Eustacia Smith of Irish Queers.

Irish LGBTQ groups have been fighting to take our place in our community’s parade for 25 years. We hope that next year’s parade will finally see the end of discrimination – and that corporations and others who say they support inclusion will work with the Irish LGBTQ community, rather than through back room deals.

###

Read More

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."

Read More

Irish LGBTQs to Gay Inc: Please don't apply to march

[This letter was emailed to national LGBT advocacy organizations on Sept. 7 and 8, 2014.]

9/8/14

Dear LGBT advocacy organizations,

As we're sure you know, Irish LGBTQ groups have been fighting for inclusion in the NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade for over 20 years. Irish Queers (and its predecessor, the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization, and other groups and allies) has suffered hundreds of arrests for civil disobedience, many years of protesting from the sidelines, and an endless history of enduring insults, threats and beer bottles thrown by parade participants and spectators. Brendan Fay and His Lavender and Green Alliance created a now much-respected and beloved St. Pat's for All inclusive parade in Queens.

Nothing has deterred us from showing up every year on Fifth Avenue and continuing to demand inclusion as Irish people and Irish-Americans in what should be our parade, too. Our annual exclusion is the subject of worldwide headlines every year.

Now the headlines have changed. But the war is not yet won. Parade organizers are trying to finesse their loss of major sponsors by offering a place in the line of march to an LGBTQ employee group from NBC (the parade broadcaster). Parade organizers did not discuss this with any of us, nor have they made a single move to include an actual Irish LGBTQ group.

So we are making formal application for inclusion in the 2015 Parade. We would like your support. We would like you to show up at our press conference on Tues., Sept. 9, at 9am on the steps of the NY Public Library at Fifth Ave. and 40th St. We would like you to contact the parade organizers to support our application. 

And we would like you NOT to apply to march yourselves. This is an explicitly Irish heritage parade. That's why we should be included. Because we are groups of Irish LGBT people. This parade is unique. Unlike the LGBTQ Pride Parades or the Puerto Rican Day Parade or most others, this one does not welcome all comers. It's very closed and specific.

Please do not apply to march. Please support the application of Irish LGBTQ people to march.

Thank you,

Irish Queers

Lavender and Green Alliance

St. Pat's for All

Read More

Statement: Still here, still queer, still Irish; and applying to march.

(Photo: Donna Aceto, Gay City News 9/9/14)

Sept. 9, 2014

Last week we learned that the NYC St. Patrick's Day parade made a backroom deal to invite OUT@NBC Universal, a gay marketing group, to march in the 2015 parade. Today, Irish Queers are applying to march in the 2015 St. Patrick’s Parade, along with Lavender and Green Alliance and St. Pat’s for All.

It’s no secret that parade organizers don’t want to admit that Irish LGBT people are part of the Irish community; and that they use their control over the parade permit to keep us out. Two decades of calls from Ireland and NYC to end the bigotry have not changed the parade committee’s minds.

They’re under pressure now, but they haven’t changed their tune. When Guinness, Heineken, and elected officials dropped out of the parade last year, NBC told the parade committee they couldn’t keep sponsoring unless the anti-gay ban were lifted. So OUT@NBC offered itself as a painless solution. Gay corporate staff can march (under a banner that doesn’t say the word “gay”), NBC saves face, and the parade keeps NBC’s sponsorship – without doing a thing to end the exclusion of Irish LGBT groups.

Parade organizers have said in the press that Irish LGBT groups “can apply to march in future years” and that inviting NBC’s gays is “a gesture of goodwill.” This is an unwelcome bit of Irish nostalgia. ILGO was also told by parade organizers in the early 1990s to "apply to march." The organizers pretended ILGO was on a waiting list because the parade was too long, and made excuses for refusing our application that were uncovered later in court.

Now, less than a week since their “gesture of goodwill”, the parade committee is saying they can’t entertain our application because they’re “under pressure to shorten the parade.” ARE. YOU. SERIOUS.

We’re submitting our application today. And we’re calling on OUT@NBC Universal to refuse to march until Irish LGBT groups march in the Irish parade, under our own banners. We call on OUT@NBC not to be pawns in this triangulation of homophobia, money, and PR.

We want to march up Fifth Avenue as an Irish diaspora that has finally joined Ireland in rejecting religion-fueled bigotry. Let Irish queer groups finally take our place in this year's parade.

###

Read More

Lovely video from St. Pat's for All

Kind of an awesome collection of video interviews from a CNN iReporter at the St. Pat's for All parade. Not much love for the Fifth Avenue parade, and lots of talk about why it matters that communities come together to celebrate their experience.

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1101092?ref=feeds/oncnn

Read More

Unicorns not Uniforms bring it @ St. Pat's for All

Some politicians tried to have it both ways by walking in "the inclusive parade" and also the bigoted one. NYC Irish voice of the center-right Niall O'Dowd even chided de Blasio for not trying the same trick, rather than staying away. ("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. Everyone saved face with this solution..." Seriously??)

In their effort to model inclusivity, one supposes, the Queens parade organizers never challenged them on that shady move. But a number of Queens parade-goers, including some local press, told us this year that they'd never known the Fifth Ave parade excluded queers. The connection between the two (enjoyment of small inclusive parade and protest of huge parade of homophobia) has gotten a bit buried under the "nice."

Irish Queers felt like we had things to celebrate this year, so we marched in the Queens parade as a "Unicorns, not uniforms! NYPD out of anti-gay parades!" contigent. It was super fun!

A few things happened. History is made in the doing.

1. Reporters asked us the questions we used to have to ask them! Like "DeBlasio is boycotting, but you're saying that's not enough, he should remove unformed police and firefighters from the parade, right?" Thanks for that moment of joy, NY1. (It's not in the transcript, but it's in the video piece they posted, here.)

2. Crowds cheered madly from the sidelines as we passed with signs saying "Irish AND queer" and "Take it off! No City uniforms in anti-gay parades!" In past years, the crowd was so disconnected from protest that they sometimes looked at Irish Queers flyers like they called for a ban on sunshine and chocolate.

3. More than once, a St Pats for All organizer literally tried to shove Irish Queers out of view of cameras, and physically pull reporters away from conversations with us. Just for the record.

4. Some St Pats for All organizers were welcoming and really supportive of Irish Queers' presence and the call to protest on Fifth Avenue. Just for the record!

5. The Rude Mechanical Orchestra made our day, as always. Music on the march is so fab, rebel music even better, and the occasional song that features chants about your own work is the absolute tops!!!

Read More

Unicorns, not Uniforms! (Marching in St. Pats' for All this Sunday!)

A contingent from the coalition of LGBTQ & police accountability groups will be marching in the St. Pat's for All Parade in Queens this Sunday March 2nd.

RSVP on Facebook! https://m.facebook.com/events/236582423196265

The parade begins at Skillman Ave and 47th Street. We'll be arriving at 12:30pm with a picnic. (We are arriving early to talk to press and do outreach!) The parade steps off at 2PM with speeches and opening remarks before hand. 

We'll be keeping our messaging focused on upholding the city's human rights law. We plan to march behind the Rude Mechanical Orchestra.

Text 212 289-1101 or 718-909-3956 if you can't find us!

Read More

Press release: Irish/LGBTQ Coalition Slams Bratton on Anti-Gay Parade

PRESS RELEASE - For Immediate Release - Feb. 28, 2014

Irish/LGBTQ Coalition Slams NYPD Commissioner’s Decision to Join St. Patrick’s Day Parade; Bratton Endorsement of Homophobia Taints Police-Community Relations.

Marching in 'St. Pat’s for All' this Sunday, Coalition will call for withdrawal of uniformed NYPD & FDNY participation in Fifth Ave parade.

Press availability for comment at ‘St. Pat’s for All’ parade: Sunday 3/2 from 1-2pm in Sunnyside, Queens: 47th Street, mid-block between Skillman Ave. and 39th Ave. 

Contact:  Emmaia Gelman (917) 517-3627

New York – "NYPD Commissioner Bratton's announcement that he will march in the homophobic St. Patrick's Day Parade on Fifth Avenue is a slap in the face to LGBTQ people and all New Yorkers," said JF Mulligan of Irish Queers. "The Commissioner's one-word dismissal of a boiling civil rights issue is insulting and deliberately provocative. Bratton should be joining the Mayor and the City Council in refusing to endorse the insistent bigotry of the parade organizing committee.”

A coalition of more than 200 groups and individuals concerned with LGBTQ rights and biased policing had written to NYPD Commissioner Bratton and FDNY Commissioner Cassano last week, outlining their obligation to withdraw their official endorsement from biased events. Neither Commissioner responded. (See letter: http://irishqueers.blogspot.com/2014/02/calling-commissioners.html.)

“This parade was recast as a ‘private, religious procession’ for the sole purpose of circumventing anti-discrimination law. How are we supposed to watch thousands of cops march in an exclusionary, religious-right parade and then somehow trust them with our safety?” said Mulligan.

“Commissioner Bratton’s refusal even to acknowledge the LGBTQ community’s concern is a glaring confirmation that the NYPD is not accessible to us. Commissioner Bratton’s history in NYC inspires fear, not confidence, in communities who have been the targets of NYPD bias. His casual disregard translates directly to homophobia in the precincts,” said Jennifer Flynn of Irish Queers.

Early in February, the coalition petitioned Mayor de Blasio to pull uniformed City officials from the parade. The Mayor has not agreed to do that, although the request prompted the Mayor’s announcement that he would not attend the parade himself.

“The Mayor’s boycott of the parade is undermined by Commissioner Bratton’s declaration of his intention to march. The Mayor has to take action to stand the City in opposition to this parade. If police in Russia marched in an anti-gay parade in uniform, it would be front page news here,” said Flynn.

“The NYPD and FDNY's participation in the parade is hugely questionable under the law – and the fact that the Mayor doesn't seem concerned with remedying this problem is as disturbing legally as it is morally and politically,” said civil rights attorney Alan Levine in an earlier statement.

Government ministers in Ireland are also supporting the boycott and calling on Ireland’s conservative prime minister to stay away. LGBTQ organizations in Ireland have called on the Irish government and Gardaí (police) to shun the parade and reject its skewed portrayal of Irish culture. 

The coalition will march in the St. Pat’s for All parade in Queens this Sunday.

###

Read More

An inclusive St. Patrick's Day Parade looks like this...

Just a few pictures from yesterday...

Pete Hamill and Malachy McCourt having a chat & watching the Keltic Dreamers dance troupe...

The Keltic Dreamers dance troupe...

Parading along Skillman Ave...this is so much more festive than Manhattan, isn't it?

Wow, a banner about immigrant & workers rights...you won't see that in Manhattan.

Banners with Mother Jones and the Berrigan brothers...

Hombres Latinos de Ambiente from the Bronx...

HASA for All!

Free Mumia!

Veterans for Peace

RHA

And of course, a *tiny* number of misguided nutcases with bad grammar that don't understand that lesbians and homosexuals are the same f&%king thing. Whatever.

Speaking of homophobes, two of us Irish Queers had a funny experience while flyering folks along the parade route to come to our protest. Two women (which we assumed were sisters since the looked a lot alike) thought we were handing out anti-gay literature so they yelled "HATERS!" at us. I then explained that we were queer and they apologized. As strange as the situation was, I have to admit that I love the idea of parade-watching Irish Americans yelling at homophobes. If there are any other Irish Americans out there that have the guts to brazenly challenge bigots, you should come to our protest on March 17th. We'd love to have you join us!

More queer commentary on the parade can be found on Blabbeando.

Read More

A lovely night at the Irish Arts Center

Irish Queers were in attendance at the St. Pat's for All fundraiser at the Irish Arts Center last night.

Read More

From Gay City News...

St. Pat's Politics in Queens, Manhattan

By: ANDY HUMM, 2/28/2008

The Irish parade season kicks off this Sunday, March 2, with the inclusive Queens St. Patrick's Day Parade led by grand marshals Christine Quinn, the out lesbian speaker of the City Council, and writer Pete Hamill. It starts at 2 p.m. at 43rd Street and Skillman Avenue (#7 train to 40th St./Lowery) and winds up at 61st Street and Woodside. For more information, go to www.stpatsforall.com.

The Manhattan St. Patrick's Day Parade on Fifth Avenue on March 17 will be protested once again by Irish Queers with an action along the route at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue, starting at 11 a.m. The parade, controlled by the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), has refused Irish LGBT groups the chance to participate with their banners since the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization, now defunct, applied in 1991. Then-Mayor David Dinkins let ILGO march with him that year. The gay marchers and the mayor were pelted with bottles and other abuse and ILGO and other openly LGBT groups have since been totally excluded.

Most major Democratic politicians, except for New York's two US senators, have honored a boycott of the Fifth Avenue parade. Quinn, who was arrested several times in protests against the exclusion but - like almost all elected officials - has not joined the picket in recent years, tried to broker a way for Irish LGBT folk to march when she first became speaker, but was decisively rebuffed. Her effort involved allowing marchers to participate with identifying gay sashes and buttons, a compromise approach Emmaia Gelman of Irish Queers rejects, saying anything less than being allowed to march behind a banner would not do. "We're not going to be downgraded," Gelman said.

On the "Gay USA" TV show I co-host with Ann Northrop, Quinn, several weeks ago, said, "I'm going to keep fighting and keep boycotting until we can get past this." While she conceded she was not optimistic about a change under the current AOH leadership, she said, "When you talk to the leadership of these organizations one step below - the next round of folks who are going to take over - when they're in charge we'll get beyond this."

Gelman said, "We can't have a committee decide who is Irish."

In a release, Irish Queers called on Quinn to "stop giving cover to politicians who ignore the boycott - Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, and Michael Bloomberg among them - by standing with them everywhere but on Fifth Avenue and glossing over their decision to support religious-right homophobes."

Irish Queers wrote Quinn about their concerns and said that in her emailed response she reiterated her commitment not to march, but did not respond to the issues they raised.

Read More

Save these dates......

• Well, first there's our protest on March 17th.
• St. Pat's for All is this Sunday. Assembly will begin at 1pm and step off is at 2pm at 43 Street & Skillman Ave. in Sunnyside, Queens. Directions: Take the 7 to 40th Street Station. Walk west to 43rd Street and then turn north to Skillman Avenue.
• Next Tuesday night (3/3) Irish Queers will be holding a planning meeting at The Center at 8pm.
• Eileen Myles will be reading at the Telephone Bar and Grill on Thursday March 6th at 8pm.

• Irish lesbian singer Shaz Oye will be playing at An Beal Bocht Cafe in the Bronx on Sunday March 16th.

• On March 22nd Jews for Racial and Economic Justice will be hosting a Purim Spectacular Party. A group is working together to create a Purim play on Housing, Gentrification and Homelessness...it's gonna be great! For more information or to RSVP, click here.
  

• The fate of Pier 40 will be decided on March 27th. Support FIERCE, and stay tuned for details.

Read More

Supporting St. Pat's for All

This Friday, St. Pat's for All will be hosting a fundraiser at the Irish Arts Center. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased here. As the only inclusive St. Patrick's Day in New York City, it is very important for Irish LGBT and progressive folks to support this event.

I attended my first St. Pats for All in 2004 when I moved to New York, and I have to say that it was the first St. Patrick's Day Parade that I have ever attended where I felt at home. The parade is made up of a diverse set of community groups, unlike the Manhattan parade which consists of endless contingents of politicians, police officers, firefighters, and military personnel. There are no tanks or guns on display in Queens, just Irish American culture, in all of its diversity. The event also has an explicitly anti-racist message which is sadly another element that you would never see as an integral part of most St. Patrick's Day parades.

St. Pat's for All is an Irish parade that we can all feel good about, so come join us this Sunday in Queens. Our group is not marching, but we will be mingling on the sidelines and enjoying all the festivities. For more information, click here. Also, check out this recent article on the parade.

Read More