Watching Ireland's gay marriage referendum from queer NYC

Photo: mashable.com

Along with the rest of the world, we're watching Ireland today for the marriage referendum. We're not big on marriage… gay marriage in the US has been used as a way to take apart the queer movement that sees gender, race, class, health care, housing, policing, and corporate power as all part of the same web.

But...

Ireland is another place.

• In Ireland, the campaigning around the referendum has turned up some really intense homophobia, and we hope today's vote shows a victory over that.
• Conservative religion and church power in Ireland have been challenged so importantly and beautifully in the past decade or so -- today's vote is another huge challenge, and that's unquestionably fabulous.
• The NO campaign has tried to portray African and other migrants in Ireland as religious, conservative, and homophobic in an ugly racist fashion that mirrors how Western churches have been pushing homophobic laws in African states. Migrants have spoken out against the NO campaign's racism, and against homophobia. Today's YES vote will turn that racism on its head, we hope.
• The YES campaign has been extremely white (not to mention full of images of queers as just regular folks, which is different in Ireland than here, but not so different...) We hope today's YES vote will make space for queers to be queer again, rather than normal.

 Good luck to Ireland from NYC Irish Queers.

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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!!

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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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Lawsuit challenging NYPD & FDNY on bigoted St. Patrick's parade

The LGBTQ protest of the homophobic, religious right NYC St. Patrick’s Day parade made big progress this year. The boycott made international headlines, and major sponsors dropped out.

But incredibly, the NYPD and FDNY still insist they have a “right” to join in with the homophobia, as if anti-discrimination laws (and the Constitution) are just a suggestion.

So we’re taking it to court. We’re bringing a lawsuit arguing that the NYPD and FDNY are sending a message that LGBTQ New Yorkers’ rights, safety, and inclusion really don’t matter to them, and our communities can’t rely on them. We’ll ask the court to make the City follow its own anti-discrimination laws and the Constitution.

We hope that challenging anti-LGBTQ bias in particular will help create the environment of accountability around NYPD and FDNY discrimination more broadly.

For information or to join the lawsuit:

irishqueers@gmail.com or (917) 517-3627.

------

Here's what the lawsuit will say:

• LGBTQ New Yorkers are supposed to have fair and equitable access to public services, including policing (suspend your critique of policing generally, for a second.)
• The NYPD's official participation in the explicitly religious right/homophobic NYC St. Patrick's Day parade tells the LGBTQ community that the NYPD, the FDNY, and the City are (still) not interested in our community's rights and safety, and that the NYPD is "more oppressor than protector" to the LGBTQ community, in the words of a federal appeals court.
• This bias denies LGBTQ people equal access to the services of the NYPD.

Here's what we hope the lawsuit, and the political organizing around it, will accomplish:

• Force the City (NYPD, FDNY, etc) to disassociate itself from the bigoted parade, and possibly force a change that takes the lucrative event away from the bigoted power brokers who run it now.
• Pose a serious and highly public challenge to the NYPD’s and FDNY’s bias and homophobia, and the permissive attitude of the City toward that bias.
• Weaken the power of the religious right in NYC (which is also currently challenging secular control of city schools.)

What does "joining the lawsuit" actually mean?

It means adding your name to the court document. The court document will make a claim about how NYPD homophobia (as expressed when thousands of uniformed cops march in a huge bigoted parade) affects the community in general, and you as an example. This lawsuit will not ask the NYPD to pay money for the harm it has caused.

Who can join?

• NYC residents who identify as LGBTQ
• including people who have not had direct experience of biased policing
• including people who have had direct experience of biased policing
• including people who are citizens, residents, green card holders, etc.
• NYC organizations who represent or serve LGBTQ people

Who should not join?

• People who don't live in NYC or aren't LGBTQ (because of the specific requirements of law -- not because we don't love you.)
• People who might have a problem with their legal residency status, outstanding warrants, or other issue that might be complicated if your name appears in a court document.

How much money will it cost you?

NONE. Our fabulous attorney and legal team are working pro bono (for free). We’ll be planning some fabulous community fundraising events to pay for court costs.

How much of my time will it take?

Not much, unless you want to pitch in with the organizing. We will be doing political and media organizing around the lawsuit, and you are welcome to join in that or not.

When we meet, the legal team will need to get a short statement from you about how NYPD and FDNY participation in the homophobic parade affects you.

Our lawyer says:

It's possible you would be asked to give testimony at a deposition (that is testifying, under oath, in a lawyer’s office, with a court reporter transcribing your testimony.)  The process would take a few hours of preparation with the lawyer and up to seven hours (although usually less) at the deposition. Questioning would be about the subject matter of the lawsuit.

There may be times when it makes sense for us to show up in court, and for LGBTQ community members to testify about how the NYPD and FDNY participation affects them, if the lawsuit goes to trial. We'll need some folks to do that, but it's also absolutely fine if some of us cannot.

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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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UPDATED: LGBTQ and Allies Letter to Mayor on City Participation in Discriminatory Parades

Want to sign on yourself? Click here.
Contact: Emmaia Gelman (917) 517-3627, emmaia.gelman@gmail.com

2/3/2014

Dear Mayor de Blasio:

More than twenty years ago, the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization sought to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Fifth Avenue and was excluded. In 1993, parade organizers used a court case to declare it a private, religious procession whose anti-gay message would be controverted by the presence of an identifiable Irish LGBTQ group—even though LGBTQ groups are welcome in St. Patrick’s Day parades all over Ireland.

From then on, City leaders supportive of LGBTQ rights and dignity have boycotted the parade. But the Police Commissioner and thousands of uniformed police, organized by their precincts, have marched every year in this explicitly anti-gay parade. Firefighters and other City personnel also march every year in their official capacity.

The organizers of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade have established a constitutional right to their exclusionary religious procession, but the participation of police and firefighters is a clear violation of the City’s Human Rights Law, appended below.

The presence of uniformed police and firefighters in such a procession sends a clear signal to LGBTQ New Yorkers that these personnel, who are charged with serving and protecting all New Yorkers, do not respect the lives or safety of LGBT people. It confirms the practice of the NYPD and FDNY at times of targeting certain communities for discrimination. What’s more, it betrays the current work of high level government agencies and human rights advocates working internationally against the current wave of extreme anti-LGBTQ legislation and discriminatory practices occurring in countries such as Nigeria, Uganda and Russia.

Indeed, legal precedent on this matter, in Pappas v. Giuliani, 290 F.3d 143 (2d Cir. 2002), says: “The effectiveness of a city's police department depends importantly on the respect and trust of the community and on the perception in the community that it enforces the law fairly, even-handedly, and without bias. If the police department treats a segment of the population of any race, religion, gender, national origin, or sexual preference, etc., with contempt, so that the particular minority comes to regard the police as oppressor rather than protector, respect for law enforcement is eroded and the ability of the police to do its work in that community is impaired.”

We are asking you to direct all City departments not to organize marchers for or allow personnel to participate in this anti-LGBTQ procession either in uniform or with any banner that identifies them with the City.

The 2014 St. Patrick's Day parade is approaching. We ask that you act immediately on this matter. We would be pleased to meet for further discussion on a timeline that addresses this year's march.

Sincerely,

[Signatures as of 3/11/14. List in formation. Updates will be posted at http://irishqueers.blogspot.com/2014/02/deblasio-letter.html]

Organizations

ACT UP/New York (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power)

African Services Committee - Amanda Lugg, Director of Advocacy

Brooklyn Community Pride Center – Erin Drinkwater, Executive Director

CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities

The Center for HIV Law and Policy - Catherine Hanssens, Executive Director

Gay Asian Pacific Islander Men of New York (GAPIMNY) Steering Committee

Gay City News

Gay USA TV program - Ann Northrop, Co-host

GRIOT Circle - Katherine Acey, Executive Director

The International Action Center - Teresa Gutierrez, Co-Director

Irish Queers - Gaby Cryan, Emmaia Gelman & John Francis Mulligan

Jay's House - Jay Toole, Executive Director and Founder

Jews for Racial and Economic Justice - Marjorie Dove Kent, Executive Director

Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Campaign for Police Accountability - Marla Erlien, Claude Heffron, Maya Orli, Daniel Rosza Lang/Levitsky

Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club - Allen Roskoff, President

Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn - Michael Czaczkes, President

Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club of Queens (LGDCQ) - Michael Mallon, President

Lesbian Herstory Archives

Metropolitan Community Church of NY - Rev. Pat Bumgardner

Milk Not Jails

National Lawyers Guild, NYC Chapter

New Alternatives for LGBT Homeless Youth - Kate Barnhart, Director

New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA) - Stephanie Hsu, Secretary

New York City Anti-Violence Project

New York City Dyke March Committee

North Star Fund - Hugh Hogan, Executive Director

Out-FM on WBAI-NY – John Riley and Naomi Brussell

Peoples Power Assembly - Imani Keith Henry, Organizer

Picture the Homeless

Queens Pride House - Pauline Park, President & Acting Executive Director

QUEEROCRACY

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid-NYC - Brad Taylor

Q-Wave - Alain Chan, Steering Committee member

Stonewall Democrats of New York City - Melissa Sklarz, President

VOCAL-NY

WNYACT (Western New Yorkers Against Conversion Therapy)

City Officials and former City Officials

Hon. Letitia James, Public Advocate of the City of New York

Hon. Eric Adams, President, Borough of Brooklyn

Hon. Mark Green, former Public Advocate of the City of New York

Hon. Betsy Gotbaum, former Public Advocate of the City of New York

Hon. John Liu, former New York City Comptroller

Hon. Brad Hoylman, New York State Senator, 27^th District, Manhattan

Hon. Corey Johnson, New York City Council, Manhattan

Hon. Mark Levine, New York City Council, Manhattan

Hon. Rosie Mendez, New York City Council, Manhattan

Hon. Helen Rosenthal, New York City Council, Manhattan

Hon. Ritchie Torres, New York City Council, Bronx

Hon. Ronnie Eldridge, former member, New York City Council

Hon. Herman “Denny” Farrell, New York State Assembly, Manhattan

Hon. Richard Gottfried, New York State Assembly, Manhattan

Hon. Keith Wright, New York State Assembly, Manhattan

Hon. Andy Humm, former New York City Human Rights Commissioner

Hon. Dr. Joyce Hunter, former New York City Human Rights Commissioner

Hon. James B. Levin, former New York City Human Rights Commissioner

Individuals (affiliations for identification purposes only)

Sammer Aboelela, Muslim community activist

Donna Aceto, activist, photographer and Gay City News freelancer

Curtis Arluck, Democratic District Leader, Morningside Heights

Nadia Awad

Mary C. Bakel, MSW, social activist

Sean Barry, Executive Director, VOCAL-NY

Mary E. Bartholomew, Esq., IPEC (Irish Parades Emergency Committee)

Hon. Marle Becker, NY County Democratic Committee

Jamie Bauer

Mark Black, veteran gay activist

Sandy Boyer, Irish community activist

Christopher Herman Brandt

Dwayne Brown, Executive Director, Jamaican Anti-homophobia Stand

Reginald T. Brown, M.Ed., Unity Fellowship of Christ Movement

Martha Burgess

Dennis Byrnes, Cranston, RI

Leslie Cagan, peace and justice organizer

Scott Caplan, Police Misconduct and Corruption Officer, Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club

George Carter, Foundation for Integrative AIDS Research

Sheri Clemons

Debra Cooper, Democratic State Committeeperson, Upper West Side

Peter Cramer

Michael Cunningham

Kara Davis, Queer activist

Brother Mark D’Alessio, SSF

Ann D’Ercole, Ph.D., Psychologist

Bill Dobbs, gay civil libertarian

Chelsea Dreher

Jack Drescher, MD, Clinical Professor, New York Medical College

Lisa Duggan, Professor, Dept of Social & Cultural Analysis, NYU

Hazel Dukes

Andrew El-Kadi

Hugh English

Lisa Fane

Brendan Fay, St. Pat’s for All, Founder and Co-Chair

Louis Flores, blogger

Jennifer Flynn, Managing Director, Health GAP

Richard Gamboa, artist/activist/academic

Robert Gangi, PROP (Police Reform Organizing Project)

Carl George

Kt Good

Ryan Green

Brother Mark Gregory, Society of St. Francis

Lisa Guido

Yvonne M. Harrison, Restoration Temple Ministries

Anthony Heilbut, author

Jenny Heinz

Ronald E. Hellman, MD, Director, LGBT Affirmative Program, South Beach Psychiatric Center

Geoffrey Hendricks, Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University and former President of the Board of Visual AIDS

Tony Hoffmann, President, Village Independent Democrats

Douglas Jennings

Bishop Zachary Jones, Unity Fellowship of Christ Church

Jay Kallio, veteran LGBT activist

Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz, retired Professor of Jewish Studies and Comparative Literature, Queens College

Esther Kaplan

Ken Kidd, Queer Nation NY

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, Congregation Beit Simchat Torah

SL Korn, Queer activist

Mark Landis, Democratic District Leader, 67th Assembly District, Part C

Rick Landman, veteran gay activist

Bob Lederer, member of WBAI Local Station Board; contributing producer, Out-FM on WBAI radio

Glen Leiner, veteran gay activist

Scott Long, human rights activist

Harris Lirtzman, veteran gay activist

Alan Timothy Lunceford, End AIDS Now

Revd. Dr. Bernárd J. Lynch, Chair of Camden London LGBTQ Forum, England

Ronald Madson and Richard Dietz, plaintiffs in suit that won domestic partner benefits for all City employees in Lesbian and Gay Teachers Association vs. The NYC Board of Education

Anne Maguire

Eli Mayer, PsyD, Clinical Psychologist

Malachy McCourt, Irish Pagan and author

David M. McDowell, MD (psychiatrist), Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Mount Sinai Medical Center

David McReynolds, Socialist Workers Party

Mark Milano, ACT UP/NY

Patrick Moffitt

Megan Mulholland, Co-Director, QUEEROCRACY

Eileen Myles, poet

Kevin Noble, Irish community activist

Bernard O’Brien

Paul O’Dwyer

Edward Pass

Robert Pinter, Campaign to Stop the False Arrests

Jessica Rechtschaffer

Charles Rice-Gonzalez, author and co-founder of BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance

Nelson Santos, Executive Director, Visual AIDS

Elizabeth Savicz, teacher

Nathan M. Schaefer, Executive Director, Empire State Pride Agenda

Paul Schindler, editor-in-chief of Gay City News, and Bert Vaccari

Sarah Schulman, Distinguished Professor of the Humanities, City University of New York-College of Staten Island

Arthur Schwartz, Greenwich Village District Leader

Elaine Shulman, President, Ansonia Independent Democrats

Charles Silverstein, Ph.D., Former Director, Institute for Human Identity

Jo Anne Simon, NYS Democratic Committeewoman and District Leader, 52^nd Assembly District, Brooklyn

Trish Spoto

Armanda Squadrilli

Sarinya Srisakul, NYC firefighter and President of United Women Firefights

Jessica Stern, Director, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC)

Colm Tóibín, author

Michael Tikili, co-founder and board member QUEEROCRACY

Urvashi Vaid

Andy Velez

Thomas S. Verni (Ret. Detective), NYPD Community Affairs, Citywide LGBT Community Liaison 

Shep Wahnon, veteran gay activist

Dr. George Weinberg, psychotherapist, author of Society and the Healthy Homosexual (1972) identifying homophobia as social ill

Seth Weissman, Victory Fund Campaign Board Member

Robert West, President/Founder, Breaking Bread Under the Rainbow

Edmund White, writer

Sherry Wolf, associate editor, International Socialist Review

Maxine Wolfe, Professor Emerita, City University Graduate School and Coordinator Lesbian Herstory Archive

Ellen Zaltzberg, retired City worker

Joanie Hieger Fritz Zosike, THAW, and under DADAnewyork

Legal (affiliations for identification purposes only)

Susan Abraham, Professor of Law, New York Law School

Beena Ahmad, Civil Rights Attorney

Bina Ahmad, Criminal Defense Attorney and National Vice President of the National Lawyers Guild

Afua Atta-Mensah, Attorney

Lee F. Bantle, Civil Rights Attorney

Melynda Barnhart, Associate Professor of Law, New York Law School

Fran Bress, Professor of Law, New York Law School

Juan Cartagena, President & General Counsel, LatinoJustice PRLDEF

Ellen P. Chapnick, Dean for Social Justice Initiatives, Columbia Law School

Elena L. Cohen, President, National Lawyers Guild-New York City Chapter

Kathleen Conkey, Attorney

Pamela Edwards, Professor of Law, CUNY School of Law

Hillary Exter, public interest lawyer

J. Todd Fernandez, Human Rights Attorney

Joan P. Gibbs, Esq., Civil Rights Attorney

Mercer Givhan, Associate Professor of Law, New York Law School

Julie Goldscheid, Professor of Law, CUNY School of Law

Larry Grosberg, Professor of Law, New York Law School

Abdeen Jabara, former President, American Arab Antidiscrimination Committee

Ken Kimerling, Civil Rights Attorney

Alan Levine, Civil Rights Attorney

Arthur Leonard, Professor of Law, New York Law School

Richard A. Levy, Union and Civil Rights Attorney

Foster Maer, Civil Rights Attorney

Holly Maguigan, Professor of Law, NYU Law School

Carlin Meyer, Professor of Law, New York Law School

Benjamin Meyers, Attorney

James Meyerson, Civil Rights Attorney

Stephen A. Newman, Professor of Law, New York Law School

Gideon Oliver, Civil Rights Attorney

Edward Purcell, Distinguished Professor of Law, New York Law School

David Rankin, Civil Rights Attorney

Michael Ratner, President Emeritus, Center for Constitutional Rights

Andrea Ritchie, Civil Rights Attorney

Allie Robbins, CUNY School of Law

Franklin Siegel, Civil Rights Attorney

Jane Marcia Spinak, Clinical Professor of Law, Columbia law School

Michael Steven Smith, Esq., Member, Board of Directors, Center for Constitutional Rights

Martin R. Stolar, Civil Rights Attorney

Richard Storrow, Professor of Law, CUNY School of Law

Peter Strauss, Distinguished Adjunct Professor, New York Law School

Nadine Strossen, Professor of Law, New York Law School and former President of the ACLU

Mark Taylor, Civil Rights Attorney

Susan Tipograph, Attorney

Bela August Walker, Associate Professor of Law, Roger Williams School of Law

Daniel Warshawsky, Associate Professor of Law, New York Law School

Rose M. Weber, Civil Rights Attorney

Melvin L. Wulf, former Legal Director, ACLU

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New York City Human Rights Law
(http://www.nyc.gov/html/cchr/html/law/nyc-human-rights-ch1.shtml#1)

Title 8 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York

Chapter 1 - Commission on Human Rights

§ 8-101 Policy. In the City of New York, with its great cosmopolitan population, there is no greater danger to the health, morals, safety and welfare of the city and its inhabitants than the existence of groups prejudiced against one another and antagonistic to each other because of their actual or perceived differences, including those based on race, color, creed, age, national origin, alienage or citizenship status, gender, sexual orientation, disability, marital status, partnership status, any lawful source of income, status as a victim of domestic violence or status as a victim of sex offenses or stalking, lawful occupation, whether children are, may be or would be residing with a person or conviction or arrest record. The council hereby finds and declares that prejudice, intolerance, bigotry, and discrimination and disorder occasioned thereby threaten the rights and proper privileges of its inhabitants and menace the institutions and foundation of a free democratic state. A city agency is hereby created with power to eliminate and prevent discrimination from playing any role in actions relating to employment, public accommodations and housing and other real estate, and to take other actions against prejudice, intolerance, bigotry, discrimination and bias-related violence or harassment as herein provided; and the commission established hereunder is hereby given general jurisdiction and power for such purposes.

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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.

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'Tis the St. Patrick's Day season.......

.....and Irish Queers are shaking things up for the 17th year in a row. Here is our latest Press Advisory:

As Council Speaker Quinn fades out of challenge to NYC St. Patrick’s parade, Irish Queers press her for commitments

Irish Queers submitted a request for clarification to NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn last week (excerpts below) charging the Speaker with wooing both sides of the St. Patrick’s Day parade issue – both Irish and other gay activists, and conservative and church-linked Irish American power brokers. The letter requested that Speaker Quinn make clear her position on the parade, its organizers, and her willingness to provide meaningful support to progressive sectors of the NYC Irish community who oppose the religious right, and homophobia.

Speaker Quinn has not replied to Irish Queers with any commitments of support, nor any answers to questions about her activities in the Irish American community – although on Gay USA, a national cable television program, she claimed last week that she didn’t know she was joining NYC Parade Committee chair John Dunleavy for a posed photograph at a United Irish County Associations dinner.

Irish Queers plans to protest the NYC St. Patrick's Day parade, which explicitly excludes Irish LGBT people unless they remain closeted. In the last decade, the Parade Committee has transformed the march into a 'religious procession' and has re-branded itself to include an anti-gay message. The protest will take place at 57th Street and 5th Avenue, beginning at 11am on March 17th.

[Our letter to Christine Quinn from February 19, 2008]

…You’ve stood with us in the past, but in the last few years we’ve seen you wooing both conservative Irish American figures and the LGBT community, showing each a different face. In 2006, we saw you attempting to strike a deal with parade organizers without talking to groups organizing against the parade’s homophobia. In 2007, we saw you marching in Dublin and talking about queer rights, yet we don’t see you at home talking about queer rights in front of the Irish American community… we’ve seen you support the NYPD without making any challenge to violent, politicized policing of queers and others. We heard you entertain the idea of inviting Ian Paisley, renowned racist and homophobe, to lead the NYC parade. So far in 2008, we’ve seen you mingling with anti-gay parade organizer John Dunleavy, and retreating from progressives in the LGBT community. We know you’re planning to join in the inclusive Queens parade, but we also know you’re aware that the eyes of the world – and the Irish community – are on Fifth Avenue.
…

Redelineate the boycott on the NYC St. Patrick’s Day parade. 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. Don’t photo-op with the NYC St. Patrick’s Parade Committee and other supporters of the parade as if they’re lovely people who just happen to run an annual anti-gay public spectacle. Say out loud that those who march in the parade are joining in an event whose message is explicitly anti-gay, and hold them to account for their actions.

Demand that the city stop participating in the parade. Tell other city officials that they must not march – and if they do, impose political consequences on them. If cops and firefighters want to march, tell them they shouldn’t be representing the city in uniform.

Support the Irish queers and progressives who are doing this work. Stop being somewhere else on the day of the parade – turn up on the picket line. Don’t stand in for Irish queers in discourse about the parade with politicians, media, business groups and others. Instead, support grassroots voices to be heard by encouraging people to talk to Irish queers and progressives themselves.

Show that Irish queers are an integral part of the New York Irish community. Actively include secular Irish queers in official City Council celebrations of Irish community. Create opportunities for Irish New York to support and celebrate the accomplishments of Irish queers; don’t tack us on as an afterthought.

Don’t undermine queers and progressives in Ireland. Don’t stand with unrepentant bigots like Ian Paisley and propose that their targets – whether queers, Catholics or Irish republicans – should embrace those who attack us.

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2008 Grand Marshal

The Irish Echo ran this article about the 2008 Grand Marshal, Tommy Smyth. I love this quote from Irish Consul General Niall Burgess:

"The parade is the greatest public expression of the kind of people we are, open, fun-loving, generous. Tommy Smyth is open, fun-loving and generous and he is our representative this year," Burgess said.



Um, what f&%king planet is he from? Has he not heard about the bigoted reputation of this parade and its organizers for the past 17 years?

In my experience, if you ask people about Irish people, especially queers and people of color, you will hear that many think of Irish Americans as racist, homophobic, conservative-right-wing-bigots.....not as kind, open, fun-loving, and generous. (ILIR's framing of immigration isn't helping in this area either, but I won't go into that now.)

Last year, Michael Patrick MacDonald wrote this piece about how some of us are actually annoyed and ashamed about the stereotype of the Irish bigot. While I agreed with this article, the only thing I think was missing from it was a CALL TO ACTION! Who better to stand up and challenge Irish American bigotry than other Irish Americans? We can't just sit around and hope and wait for bigots to become un-bigoted. If you're interested in being more than an arm-chair liberal, come join us on Fifth Avenue this March 17th. Or better yet, come to a meeting and help us plan this year's demo ;-)

But wait.......I almost forgot my other favorite quote from the Irish Echo article. John Dunleavy, who forever keeps preaching about the parade's importance in terms of protecting and preserving faith, values and culture (ick), also stated that the parade contributed between $125 and $150 MILLION DOLLARS to the city's economy in additional sales tax. With numbers like that, it doesn't take a genius to see that the city is making a nice profit off queer exclusion & homophobia.

(photo by Andy Humm)

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News of Irish & Queer Interest...

Check out this story of transphobia, Catholic-style. I love it how Bill Donohue frames everything like he (& other Catholics) are the victims. As if!

The Irish American community in NY doesn't want to admit that Irish LGBT people exist, but over in Ireland, a new survey reports that 3 out of 4 Irish people believe the morning-after pill should be available from a pharmacist without a prescription. In December, the Irish Times quoted a poll stating that "79 per cent of Irish Catholic adults oppose church teaching prohibiting the use of condoms for any reason, including the prevention of HIV and AIDS." Just more proof that the Catholic vision of Ireland that the AOH wants to preserve simply does not exist any more.

An Irish homophobe in Boston *actually* makes an apology for being an "instrument of bigotry and prejudice." How often does that ever happen?

A teenager was recently in a Dublin court to answer for charges that he attacked a straight couple last year because he thought she was "a gay man because of her hairstyle." (Yes, this is a true story.)

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AOH: Keep Your Bigotry Out of My Uterus & Off Fifth Ave

I am writing in response to the January 3rd article by April Drew detailing the "new agenda" for the Ancient Order of Hibernians.

I am disgusted by the paternalistic language used by Jack Meehan to describe "those women" and their "problem pregnancies" and/or "difficult choices." It almost seems like he's judging women, as if women get pregnant all by themselves. As an Irish American woman that grew up in a Catholic family, I am fully capable of making my own
decisions, and do not need an all-men's fraternal organization telling me what to do with my life or my body.

I'd also like to point out that in September 2007, the Irish Times published an article stating that 54% of women in Ireland are in favor of legalizing abortion. In America, why does the AOH keep trying to preserve a vision of a holy Catholic Ireland that doesn't exist any more?

I also wanted to speak to the not-so-discreet reference to the AOH's standoff with the Irish Queers (presently) and the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization (in the '90s) over marching in the New York St. Patrick's Day Parade ("those who would rob St. Patrick's Day of its true meaning"). I find it insulting that Meehan and John Dunleavy, who in the past compared Irish LGBT people to Nazis and the KKK, try to paint Irish LGBT people as anti-Irish like the Know-Nothings etc. WE ARE IRISH! Just because we refuse to live our lives in the closet does not make us un-Irish. Irishness should not hinge upon being a picture perfect, holier-than-thou Catholic.

The AOH is an organization that cloaks its bigotry in religion, and this renewed focus on abortion demonstrates that once again.

Tierney Gleason
Co-Organizer, Irish Queers
Brooklyn, NY

Here's the article:

AOH to Focus on Abortion
January 3, 2008

By April Drew

ANCIENT Order of Hibernian (AOH) President Jack Meehan has set in motion a new agenda for the Irish American Catholic organization to promote and defend the life of the unborn child.

In a letter written to over 300 divisions of the AOH and its members on the Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs or December 28, Meehan reminded members of the crux of the AOH’s duties.

“The core missions of the Hibernians remain — a free and united Ireland and support for the teachings of the Catholic Church,” he said.

Now that Northern Ireland will be celebrating 10 years of peace, Meehan said the AOH’s focus would change onto an area of greater needs — to protect the life of the unborn child.

Michael Cummings, archivist of the AOH, told the Irish Voice on Wednesday that the new efforts to protect the life of the unborn would be primarily focused on education.

“What we want to do is to demonstrate that we can provide support and resources for those women who are faced with problem pregnancies or with difficult choices, and hopefully defend the right of the unborn by giving the practical assistance that those women need,” he elaborated.

Speaking about taking a step back from Northern Ireland issues, Cummings said, “We have a lot of confidence in the leadership in Ireland, that they are on the right path. We are examining each of the areas we have been involved in to date and see where we might redirect some energies, efforts and resources.”

Meehan’s letter had the same sentiment. “ We must re-energize ourselves to fight the scourge of abortion in the same steadfast manner that we have used to fight the many injustices wreaked upon Catholic/Nationalists in the North of Ireland,” he wrote.

According to Meehan, a native of Brighton, Massachusetts, the AOH, which is in its 173rd year, has tolerated and suffered through years of oppression and hardship.

“In the past we endured the tyranny of robber barons in the coalfields of Pennsylvania, stood fast against the bigotry and violence of the Know-Nothing’s in New York City, Charlestown and Philadelphia, challenged those who would rob St. Patrick’s Day of its true meaning, and defied all those who called us terrorists for advocating equality and justice for Catholics in the North of Ireland,” he wrote.

To this end, Meehan writes that it’s time to stand up again, but this time focus on the “sacredness of all creation.” This, he suggests to AOH members should “guide our direction in the future.”

Meehan explains in depth areas he would like his members to consider expanding in order to be pro active in pursuing their new agenda. He urges the support, both practical and material, to expectant mothers in pregnancy crisis centers, and he suggests assisting efforts of religious leaders and organizations to “inform and activate their flock.”

He also wants to purchase educational material about the subject for schools. Meehan hopes to add to the AOH’s existing Hibernian Charity program donations to the Sisters of Life, a religious order founded by our Brother Hibernian and JFK Memorial Medal recipient, the late John Cardinal O’Connor.

Concluding his letter quoting Pope John Paul II Meehan wrote, “Abortion, as Vatican II affirmed, is one of the abominable crimes. To attack unborn life is to attack the whole moral order.

“The defense of unborn life is part of the defense of human rights and human dignity. Please consider these words of the Pope in your response to the program initiatives I have suggested.”

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