Irish Queers gives it back to OUT@NBC (video)

Today, the day before the annual NYC St. Patrick's Day parade [protest], we thought we should swing by OUT@NBCUniversal's Facebook page. We're already completely appalled by OUT@NBC, the corporate gay/straight/marketing alliance that's marching in the antigay parade to the exclusion of the actual Irish queer groups who have been shoved aside for the last quarter century. But the video we found on their Facebook wall surpassed our expectations of badness.

NBC had made a sort of fake news piece where a gay NBC anchor Thomas Roberts (of Sochi boycott-violating fame) was interviewing the main OUT@NBC guy about how terrific it was that they were marching in the parade. In the video, they pretend to take on the concerns of the LGBT community about how OUT@NBC is undermining us. But they end up assuring everyone who has panned them for undermining the Irish struggle for inclusion (okay, so that's everyone, then) that they're actually doing it for us. Between the smarminess and the squirming, it would be a somewhat satisfying train wreck to watch if it weren't so totally deplorable.

OUT@NBC's video frankly exceeds the capabilities of an outraged press release in response. And OUT@NBC refuses to return our calls, so our options for reply are limited. But we're not the silent types! So you can watch the NBC puff piece here -- or you can watch Irish Queers' version below, in which we rage-eat cookies and finally get to talk smack to the stuffed shirts of OUT@NBC. Are we mad? Yeah, we are. In the American sense of the word.

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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

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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!!!

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Irish govt reps give NYC bigots a stern message!

Irish Parliamentarians call for inclusion of LGBT organisations and banners in NY St. Patricks Day Parade

 http://t.co/5K4Iy5QNEX

A cross party message of support has been sent by Irish parliamentarians calling for the inclusion of LGBT banners and organisations in the New York St. Patricks Day Parade.

Deputy John Halligan (Member of Parliament – Independent); Senator Averil Power (Fianna Fail Party) Senator Ivana Bacik (Labour Party) Deputy Jerry Buttimer (Member of Parliament – Fine Gael) recorded a message in front of the Irish Parliament Building, Leinster House this week.

The message refers to Ireland as a diverse and inclusive society and calls on for the inclusion of LGBT banners and organisations in the NY St. Patricks Day Parade in Manhattan.  The deputies and Senators send greetings to the St. Pat’s for All Parade taking place in Queens on March 2 - this alternative event includes and welcomes all who wish to march.

This is the first time in 23 years of exclusion of LGBT organisations from the NY parade that a cross party grouping of parliamentarians have made such a statement.  A government minister has refused to attend the parade this year in protest at the exclusion.  Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny has said he will march in the parade if he is in New York.
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Excerpted transcript:

As TDs and Senators from the four largest groupings in Leinster House, we are committed to full equality for LGBT people.

We are proud of the huge progress that Ireland has made toward becoming a fully inclusive republic that cherishes all the children of the nation equally.

And we strongly believe that the diversity and inclusiveness of today's Ireland should be reflected in all St Patrick's Day festivities at home, and aboad.

Everyone should be able to participate in all events, irrespective of their sexual orientation, gender, creed, or color.

Bacik: We believe that it is wrong to exclude Irish American LGBT banners and members of the Irish American LGBT community from the main New York City St Patrick's Day parade.

Power: It is discriminatory, unfair, and completely out of touch with the values of modern Ireland.

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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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