The new mayor of New York, who despite his name (Bill de Blasio) claims Irish ancestry, is boycotting this month’s St Patrick’s Day Parade because its organisers refuse to allow a contingent of gays and lesbians to march up Fifth Avenue as an identifiable group bearing the insignia of gay pride. This is not exactly surprising, because the New York St Patrick’s Day event, claimed to be the oldest such parade in the world, is more or less controlled by the Roman Catholic Church, which doesn’t encourage displays of gay self-congratulation. Although the parade was started in the 18th century by Protestant Irish troops in the British army, it was run for more than a century by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, an institution created to advance the interests of Irish Catholics in America and to protect them from persecution; and it is now still effectively ruled by the Church in the person of Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the conservative Archbishop of New York.
Mayor de Blasio, preaching diversity and inclusivity as the defining characteristics of New York City, won’t join the parade on 17 March, St Patrick’s Day, but chose instead to attend last Sunday’s rival ‘St Pat’s for All’ parade in the borough of Queens, organised by gay advocates, including a group called ‘Irish Queers’.
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