Subscribe to Breaking NewsLowenstein: Feeling censored, Quinn won’t celebrate St. Patricks Day in NYC
In 2007, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by marching in an annual parade held in Dublin at the request of that city’s council. Last year, the prominent Irish American attended New York Governor David Paterson’s inauguration over the holiday. This year, as the New York Times put it, Quinn will be celebrating in “another city not named New York: Washington.”
Given one of the largest celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day is held in Quinn’s own backyard– the parade that runs down Fifth Avenue in New York– it’s a little surprising that she hasn’t attended in recent years.
Surprising, that is, until you find out her non-participation is an active boycott. Told by event organizers that if she participates, she wouldn’t be allowed to display anything related to “gay pride– not a pin, not a button, not a sash,” Quinn decided to boycott the event until a compromise could be reached.
And according to Quinn, she’s asked the parade’s organizers every year to meet to try and reach that compromise. This year, like the last several, she received no response to her request.
“I just don’t understand why being stuck is more attractive than even trying,” Quinn said to the Times. “It just seems hard to accept, with all of the progress in our city, and all of the progress in the world, that we should be at loggerheads over the inclusiveness of the Fifth Avenue parade. It kind of boggles the mind.”
I don’t know why NY GLBT people just don’t line the parade route and jump into the parade at the same time as a protest.
Wow…I had no idea! The Mile High Freedom Band just celebrated and marched in their 25th St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Denver, CO. I know this, because my partner is one of the board members and trumpet players. They are also celebrating their 25th year in existence this year. I have added their website. I can’t beleive this Cow Town is more ahead of things than New York City!
How spectacularly ironic – Gay and Lesbian New Yorkers have to come to Ireland to march openly in a St. Patrick’s Day parade!
Arguably the root of the problem with the NYC parade is that it is a sectarian march. It is organised by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a Roman Catholic organisation (which ironically, I’ve never come across in Ireland). The parade thus wrongly equates Irishness with Catholicism (despite the fact that many Americans of Irish heritage are Protestant).
So 19th Century, guys.
The parade in Dublin is a civic event open to all. In the Republic of Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday, now effectively a secular celebration of national pride (and a good excuse for a drink or two!)