"Dear Enda": Irish LGBTQ groups call on the Taoiseach to break bigoted rules.

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2014/03/13/dear-enda-2/

Dear Enda

Admin at 10:02 am March 13, 2014

[Enda Kenny at the New York St Patrick's Day parade, and a LGBT pin]

We the undersigned wish to express our strong concerns regarding your proposed participation in the St Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City. By singling out openly LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) groups for exclusion from the parade, the organisers are sending out a message of discrimination and intolerance towards a section of the community and diaspora who deserve to have their contribution to the global Irish family celebrated and recognised on the same basis as everyone else.

It has been claimed, disingenuously, that because no group is allowed to display overtly political banners, the prohibition on LGBT people depicting any sign or symbol that would identify them as openly lesbian or gay is not discriminatory.

This is a claim that our identities are inherently political, which is false. Our organisations are first and foremost about community and visibility, not any political beliefs. The many other groups who make up the Irish-American community are all allowed to march under banners identifying who they are so we are clearly being subjected to a discriminatory double standard.

You gave a very welcome personal vow last November to actively campaign for what you describe as the ‘equality issue of gay marriage’ in next year’s referendum. You are also on record as stating that you are “proud to stand here as a public representative, a Taoiseach who happens to be a Catholic but not a Catholic Taoiseach. A Taoiseach for all of the people, that’s my job”. These were crucially important statements about the kind of Ireland you envision. You have an opportunity to serve as an ambassador for these same modern and inclusive values, ones which are shared by the vast majority of Irish people, at home and abroad.

Therefore, we strongly urge you to decline to march in the St Patrick’s Day Parade in New York next week – an honourable stance adopted by the city’s Mayor, Bill De Blasio, and the New York City Council. The exclusionary policies of the organisers are completely at odds with the statements you have made around these issues.  If, however, withdrawal at this stage is problematic, we ask that you wear the rainbow-flag lapel-pin [above] as a sign of solidarity with the Irish and Irish-American LGBT communities.

Where we are banned from marching and representing ourselves, our organisations and our community, you can act as our representative, our “Taoiseach for all of the people”, and show New York, Ireland and the world the values of our proud, inclusive and modern Ireland, that draws strength from our traditions but has dispensed with the damaging prejudices of the past.

LGBT Noise
National LGBT Federation (NXF)
Marriage Equality
Gay Switchboard Ireland
INTO LGBT Teachers Group
Atheist Ireland
Dundalk Outcomers
Union Of Students In Ireland (USI)
SIPTU LGBTQ
BeLonG To Youth Services
ShoutOut
LGBT Lawyers Association of Ireland
Trans Student Network Alliance
Action For Russia
Senator Katherine Zappone and Dr Ann Louise Gilligan
Senator David Norris
Senator Averil Power
Panti Bliss – Rory O’Neill
John Halligan TD
Clare Daly TD
Ailbhe Smyth, Feminist campaigner

Add yours below if you wish.

FIGHT!

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Irish Times: Why the Taoiseach should not join the St Patrick’s Day parade

And thank you.
***

Why the Taoiseach should not join the St Patrick’s Day parade
Fintan O'Toole

Last year, Enda Kenny declared in the Dáil that he was “proud to stand here as a public representative, a Taoiseach who happens to be a Catholic but not a Catholic Taoiseach. A Taoiseach for all of the people, that’s my job”. It is indeed. And if he is serious about doing that job he will explain next week, courteously but firmly, why he can’t march in New York’s St Patrick’s Day parade. He will join the city’s mayor Bill de Blasio in declining to march while gay and lesbian Irish people are refused the same opportunity. In doing so he will make a momentous statement about what it means to be Irish. The Taoiseach told the Dáil on February 18th that he would be “happy” to march in New York because “the St Patrick’s Day parade is a parade about our Irishness, not sexuality”. He is wrong on both counts. The ban on the Irish Gay and Lesbian Organization (ILGO) is, of course, about their sexuality: they’re not banned because they drink the wrong beer or follow the wrong football team. Just as significantly, though, the parade is emphatically not about “our Irishness”. Our Irishness, if “our” has any meaning in this context, is pluralist and non-sectarian. A taoiseach “for all the people” surely understands that the people are Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Orthodox, atheist and 100 shades of belief and non- belief.

Exclusive

The St Patrick’s Day parade in New York is explicitly and exclusively Catholic. This is not a value judgment. It is a fact. It is held “in honour of the patron saint of Ireland and the archdiocese of New York”.

It is preceded by Mass in St Patrick’s Catholic cathedral and then reviewed from the steps of the cathedral by the serving archbishop, currently Cardinal Timothy Dolan. The issue of gay and lesbian marchers is utterly intertwined with the religious nature of the parade.

The decision to ban ILGO was made on the grounds that the parade’s then organiser, the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), is a Catholic organisation and could therefore exclude any group or person “whose purposes, principles or agenda are inconsistent with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church”.

Banned

Although the AOH no longer formally or- ganises the parade (fear of legal action led to the creation of a committee headed by John Dunleavy, who is acknowledged to be close to Cardinal Dolan), these are still the grounds on which ILGO is banned.

In argument before the New York city human rights commission, the parade organisers insisted the ban was legitimate precisely because “the parade is a celebration of Irish Roman Catholic heritage”.

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"They allege that among the unwritten requirements for inclusion in the parade is that no group admitted have a political agenda or an agenda contrary to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. They argue ILGO advocates the right to pursue a homosexual lifestyle and is thus in violation of church doctrine."

In arguing (successfully) for the ban before the US federal court, the organisers claimed “the right to associate merely with those who adhere to any one element of Irish heritage, such as Catholicism”.

In itself, this is fine: US law protects the right to free expression of people who hold such views, even if they offend others. The organisers of the New York parade are entitled to run an event in which they “associate merely” with “one element” of Irishness. What they are not entitled to do is to then claim that this “one element” is Irishness itself. It isn’t. Most Irish people are not conservative Catholics. Most Irish Catholics believe things – about contraception, divorce, abortion and gay rights — that are contrary to Catholic doctrine.

And – here’s a thing that is almost always forgotten – most Irish-Americans are Protestant. The Taoiseach is profoundly mistaken: the parade is not about “our Irishness”. It is not even about Irish-American heritage. It is quite explicitly a celebration and endorsement of the Catholic archdiocese of New York and of the doctrinally orthodox Catholic “element of Irish heritage”.

The distinguished conservative Irish- American historian John McCarthy, who argues strongly in favour of the ban on ILGO, was usefully blunt about this in a recent letter to The Irish Times . He compared the parade to a Corpus Christi procession and said this allowed the organisers the “right to control what groups can march in it, as well as to assert the distinctly Catholic character of the event”. This is entirely fair and also the best summary of why the taoiseach of a pluralist, non-sectarian democracy has no business marching in a religious procession posing as a celebration of Irish identity.

Spotlight

Kenny has made some real progress in ending precisely the identification the organisers of the parade want to maintain, of Irishness with monolithic Catholicism. On St Patrick’s Day, the international spotlight will be on Ireland and he will have to make a statement about what he understands “our Irishness” to be. He must not tell those who think of it as diverse, open and inclusive to take a walk.

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Protest NYPD homophobia 3/17 - keep the pressure on!

Join us in protesting at the 5th Ave St. Patrick's Day parade. 

Monday, March 17th, 10:30-12:30, between 56th & 57th St on the West side of 5th Ave

We'll have banners, hot beverages, and snacks. Please RSVP if you can, by clicking here!

This is a  peaceful but difficult protest, so it really helps to know if we can count on you to be there. Call (917) 517-3627 to reach us on the day of the protest.

Click here to sign the petition to Commissioner Bratton: demand that the NYPD & the City follow their own anti-discrimination policies, instead of trying to get around them with "free speech" arguments.

Commissioner Bratton and the NYPD must seriously grapple with their racism and homophobia. The St. Patrick's Day parade is one way to call attention to recent policies and unresponsiveness to NYC communities -- including policies that criminalize the homeless and continue racist policing tactics. 

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Typo? NYC 'phobes claim Cuomo is joining them. (He's not.)

The NYC St. Patrick's Day parade committee are the guys who tightly control every inch of Fifth Avenue, ripping political stickers off of marchers' jackets, judging any indication of non-straightness a political act of treason against St. Patrick, and making sure no one chews gum lest they get stood in the corner till recess.

Although they're apparently not embarrassed by their raging bigotry, they've been embarrassed every year by a massive boycott of the parade. Most New York politicians wouldn't touch the St. Patrick's Day parade with a 10 foot prod.

This year, having finally lost the Mayor and the City Council to the boycott, it seems they thought they'd scored the Governor. They published the 2014 Line of March with Gov. Cuomo not far behind NYPD Commissioner Bratton.

http://nycstpatricksparade.org/parade-information.html on 3/10/14

Either the NYC St. Patrick's parade committe were lying about having secured Cuomo's participation, or they were very, very sadly mistaken. The Governor boycotts the parade.

We think they owe him an apology for implying he would trample the rights of New Yorkers in their "religious freedom"-based march of bigotry.

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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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Solidarity with Nigerian LGBTs/human rights... plus, new email scam.

In solidarity with the global protest today against Nigeria's anti-gay law…This wave of legislation is such a postcolonial mess. Let's take our cues from activists across Africa directly. Here's one such source with connections to more.
http://www.genderjustice.org.za/
http://www.genderjustice.org.za/updates/highlights/2001514-african-groups-call-for-the-african-union-to-urgently-respond-to-gender-and-sexuality-rights-violations-in-africa-and-particularly-to-anti-gay-laws-recently-passed-in-uganda-and-nigeria.html

On that note, a seemingly scam fundraising letter is already going around, so a reminder to do your due diligence when supporting causes so that your $ goes to people really doing the work of justice.

Fresh new email scam...
>From: African Center for Gay & Lesbian Human RIghts
>Re: Request to raise funds for a noble cause
>Dear Sir,
>It is our mission to promote Gay/Lesbianism globally...Without the assistance of community minded individuals just like you,we wouldn't be able to serve and promote our activities. We ask that you make a commitment to support our forth-coming programe and publication of our magazine appeal by making a cash donation.

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Gay City News challenges de Blasio: There's no NYPD "right" to homophobia

Is it wrong to crush out on your community newspaper?! Hope Gay City News doesn't mind, but we're pasting this one in its entirety.

In St. Pat’s Dispute, Free Speech is Not the Issue

BY PAUL SCHINDLER | If you work for a major bank or retailer or airline, it’s more likely than not that you have to get corporate approval before identifying yourself as an employee while participating in a public event. That sort of approval would typically be required, for example, if you and a group of fellow workers wanted to carry a banner with your employer’s logo on it in a parade.

In many cases, that’s not a problem. Corporations welcome opportunities for branding themselves in a wide array of public settings they view as favorable marketing opportunities. The annual LGBT Pride Parade down Fifth Avenue has, in fact, become a riot of corporate logos and colors, with runners stuffing branded tchotchkes into the hands of often unsuspecting spectators. Corporate America, for the most part, loves to create customer loyalty within the LGBT community.

Employers, however, won’t approve the use of their name or logo in every event. Employee groups would encounter trouble winning approval for identifying themselves at demonstrations over controversial issues — say, abortion rights — whether it was a pro-choice or an anti-choice message the event was promoting. Corporations see little downside today in standing with the gay community, but most see reproductive freedom as an issue that still splinters public opinion. There is no clear winner in that debate from the marketing perspective of most businesses.

Approval would almost certainly be denied if an event were widely deemed as unpopular or patently offensive. It’s hard to imagine any major business allowing its name to be used in a march promoting bigoted or racist views.

Nobody would argue that, in denying their employees the authority to use their corporate identification or logo in a public event, a company was impinging on the free speech rights of their workers. Employers likely — and rightly — have little or no ability to control the right of their workers, on their own time, to participate in even offensive public events, but they can certainly control what events their corporate names are drawn into.

All of this is relevant because Mayor Bill de Blasio, in saying city workers have the right to march in uniform in the discriminatory March 17 St. Patrick’s Day Parade and that he “absolutely respect[s]” the decision by Police Commissioner William Bratton to do the same, suggests that the right to free speech or free expression is somehow at issue here.

It’s not, and the mayor should know that.

“The NYPD has a strong interest in controlling the use of its symbols, including its uniform. When an officer marches in uniform with a particular group, the clearest message sent to the public is that the NYPD –– not the particular officer –– approves of that group.” –– 1999 brief filed by the City of New York in the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals

The right of the parade’s organizers to deny participation by openly LGBT groups — to discriminate against them — has been upheld by the US Supreme Court. The parade is deemed a private event — even if one facilitated by significant public safety resources — and so its organizers have the right to control its message.

The city, however, bound by its human rights law, does not have the right to lend its authority and stamp of approval to that discrimination. And it does have the right to determine when its workers can use their uniforms and other symbols of their employment in public settings.

The city, in fact, has made precisely that argument in a federal appeals court. In a 1999 brief filed with the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case involving police marching in uniform and with an identifying banner, the city argued, “As a quasi-military organization, the NYPD has a strong interest in controlling the use of its symbols, including its uniform. When an officer marches in uniform with a particular group, the clearest message sent to the public is that the NYPD — not the particular officer — approves of that group. If members insisted on the right to march in uniform with the Ku Klux Klan or the Nazi Party, the NYPD’s credibility with the community would be seriously undermined and its ability to perform its mission irreparably damaged.”

That’s the nut of the argument made by several hundred LGBT activists and their allies in a February 3 letter to de Blasio — that in co-signing the discriminatory practices of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, uniformed city employees, the bulk of them police officers and fire fighters, are compromising the clear message of equal treatment under the law that LGBT New Yorkers, like all their fellow citizens, deserve to hear.

De Blasio has been widely and rightly praised for being the first mayor since David Dinkins to refuse to himself march in the parade. It’s unfortunate, however, that he has chosen to obfuscate the bigger issue at hand. As mayor, he has the potential to forge an historic breakthrough in the city’s sad St. Patrick’s Day history by insisting that the parade organizers either end their bigoted practices or risk losing the colorful participation of uniformed police and firefighter contingents.

LGBT New Yorkers have the right to expect de Blasio to lead in this fashion. And they should also be able to hope that our new progressive mayor does not accord misplaced “respect” toward those who choose to join the narrow-minded crowd that controls Fifth Avenue on the 17th.

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De Blasio: Is Bratton trying to pull a Giuliani on you?

(Pic from streetsblog.org.)

Although Commissioner Bratton has flatly ignored the community's letter about the homophobic parade, he did tell a reporter last Friday (2/28) that he plans to march in the 'phobe parade. When asked what message the NYPD is sending the LGBTQ community by joining in a major display of bigotry, Bratton irrelevantly answered: "my sister is gay!" We'll try to remember that next time a homophobic cop harasses/ignores/harms a queer who's asked them for help.

Mayor de Blasio, in response to the same question from a different reporter, replied "I've sent plenty a message to the LGBT community." You heard it here first, queer community, de Blasio has already given you everything you deserve in his first two months in office. The next 3 years and 10 months are feeling very long.

Bratton:
“My own family -- my sister is gay, married in Boston. So I am very comfortable with where I am on gay issues. St. Patrick’s Day Parade for me is a celebration of heritage. “It’s that simple.”

-----

De Blasio: (This transcript was provided to reporters by the Administration.)

  

Question: You are not marching in the St. Patrick’s Parade –

Mayor: Correct.

Question: However, one of your top commissioners says that he will march, Commissioner Bratton. Is Bratton trying to pull a Giuliani on you?

Mayor: No. It’s his right as an American citizen to make that decision, and I honor his right to do so. And I have said many times, I think he’s an extraordinary police commissioner, I have immense respect for him. And that’s a personal decision he’s made, and I respect it.

Question: But what message does it give to the LGBT community?

Mayor: I think I sent a message from this platform, from this podium, in this office, in this building, that mayors over the last twenty years did not send. So I think I’ve sent plenty a message.

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LGBTQ coalition letter to NYPD's Bratton & FDNY's Cassano (ignored)

Commissioner William Bratton New York City Police Department 1 Police Plaza New York, NY 10007 By email to: dcpi@nypd.org By fax to: (646) 610-8795

Commissioner Salvatore Cassano New York City Fire Department 9 MetroTech Center Brooklyn, NY 11201 By email to: fdnyopi@fdny.nyc.gov By fax to: 718-999-0033

Feb. 20, 2014

Dear Commissioner Bratton and Commissioner Cassano,

As you know, the New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade has excluded lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer-identified groups and individuals since 1991. The parade’s avowed bigotry has been a constant source of pain and protest for the LGBTQ community. After the NYC Human Rights Commission found in 1992 that a public parade could not discri minate, the parade organizers set out to preserve their bigoted message by recasting the parade as an act of “private, religious” speech. They have endowed the parade with a clear and deliberate anti-gay message, affirmed first in court in 1993, and every year subsequently in response to inquiries from media and elected officials.

The homophobic message of the parade is so indisputable that Mayor de Blasio has said he will not march, and several leading government ministers in Ireland have announced that they can no longer justify Irish government participation in the parade, and support a boycott.

We recognize that the parade organizers have established a legal right to the exclusionary procession they have characterized as private, religious, and anti-gay. However, New York City Human Rights Law prohibits the City from approving or joining in such discrimination. Accordingly, we ask that you uphold City law by taking immediate action to prohibit uniformed NYPD and FDNY officers from marching in the parade, and to prohibit use of departmental resources for organizing participation in the parade.

The parade is so intrinsically, essentially homophobic that the presence of identifiable LGBTQ people – whether an Irish LGBTQ cultural group marching with a banner bearing the group’s name, or an individual identified in any way as a non-straight person – is rejected by organizers as anathema to the parade’s message.

Yet uniformed officers of the NYPD and FDNY are a main feature of the parade, marching in their thousands every year. They march with top brass of both departments. They march in dozens of departmentally sanctioned contingents, both official and fraternal. They march early in the parade line-up, in spots reserved for groups who hold close relationships with the parade organizers. The meaning we receive is clear: the NYPD and FDNY support the parade’s religious, anti-gay message, and the parade’s injury to the LGBTQ community is not deemed important.

This official endorsement of one of the country’s largest displays of homophobia has annually compounded the discrimination and bigotry many LGBTQ people have experienced in dealings with the NYPD, and it resonates with ongoing allegations of discrimination plaguing the FDNY. Those of us who have protested the parade’s anti-gay message over the last two decades have had particular confirmation of NYPD and FDNY members’ homophobia as they have marched past us shouting anti-gay slogans – or as police have arrested protesters while shouting epithets and worse. These instances are impossible to accept as individual behavior of “bad apples” while both departments are so thoroughly embedded in the parade.

In the broader LGBTQ community, and in other communities with histories of police discrimination in particular, witnessing the NYPD’s enthusiastic participation in this bigoted parade exacerbates the fear that the police are not interested in serving all of us.  The consequence to a vulnerable community arising from the appearance that a city’s uniformed services endorse a message of bigotry has been eloquently described by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Pappas v. Giuliani, 290 F.3d 143 (2d Cir. 2002):

“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.”

For both the NYPD and FDNY, the annual insistence on marching – over the outcry of communities they’re sworn to serve – deepens mistrust in the City’s commitment to its own human rights law. Individual officers in their private capacities may have the right to participate in such events, but the NYPD and FDNY must withdraw their official imprimatur from the parade.

We ask the courtesy of a response before February 26^th, 2014. Please reply to the address below.

Attached please find this group’s letter to Mayor de Blasio, signed by over 200 New York City community organizations, public officials, community activists, and civil rights attorneys.

Sincerely,

Gabrielle Cryan

Bill Dobbs

Jennifer Flynn

Emmaia Gelman

Andy Humm

Amanda Lugg

John Francis Mulligan

Ann Northrop

Pauline Park

Allen Roskoff

for the Ad Hoc Committee To Ban NYPD & FDNY Participation in Discriminatory Parades

Please direct your reply to:

Alan Levine, Esq.

99 Hudson St.  14^th Fl, 10013

Tel: (212) 739-7506 // Fax: (212) 431-4276

Email: *****

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