about damn time

Social media cheers as this LGBTQ-inclusive St. Patrick’s Day parade finally arrives

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Staten Island ferry terminal

For years now, organizers of the St. Patrick’s Parade in the New York City borough of Staten Island have blocked LGBTQ groups from marching. But now a new competitor has entered the arena.

The Forest Avenue St. Patrick’s Day Parade, a second Staten Island St. Patrick’s Day parade, will kick off on March 17 and will welcome LGBTQ groups, according to The New York Times. The Staten Island Business Outreach Center, which is organizing the new parade, says this new tradition will “not only enhance the vibrancy of our community but also serve as a shining example of unity for the entire city.”

The LGBTQ-inclusive event has the blessing of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ office. “From day one, Mayor Adams has been clear that celebrations in our city should be welcoming and inclusive. That is why we are thrilled to be collaborating with the Staten Island Business Outreach Center for their first-ever St. Patrick’s Day parade this year where everyone interested—regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, race, or beliefs—will be welcome to march together,” said a spokesperson for the mayor, per SILive.com.

Adams has boycotted the original Staten Island St. Patrick’s Day parade—as did former Mayor Bill DeBlasio, almost all Democratic elected officials in the region, and even some Republicans from the borough, according to the Times.

Organizers of the original parade have spent years claiming that LGBTQ groups don’t belong in their march, even though Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Day parade lifted a similar ban a decade ago. “Our parade is for Irish heritage and culture,” Larry Cummings, president of Staten Island St. Patrick’s Day parade, told the Irish Voice in 2018. “It is not a political or sexual identification parade.”

Related:

Miss Staten Island comes out, gets banned from St. Paddy’s Day Parade

Madison L’Insalata came out the day before the parade. She still got banned.

Amid the Staten Island ban, former Miss Staten Island Madison L’Insalata was prevented from marching in the original parade, as was a Republican city councilperson who wore a rainbow-flag pin, according to the Times.

Along the way, social media users protested the exclusion:

Now, however, users are celebrating the new parade, including both Adams and GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis:

In a joint statement released this February, Richmond Count District Attorney Michael McMahon, former New York State Assemblyman Michael Cusick and former New York City Councilman Ken Mitchell expressed hope that the organizers of the original parade will welcome all to their event. “We should no longer have the only known parade in the world that excludes people,” they said, per SILive.com. “One inclusive parade is what Staten Islanders from Tompkinsville to Tottenville are calling for, and we remain hopeful for that to finally happen.”

Related:

That time Ireland’s proud gay prime minister shaded Mike Pence at a St. Patrick’s Day breakfast

In 2019, Leo Varadkar managed to humiliate then-Vice President Mike Pence in the most charming way possible: by being himself.

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