City Council Joins Mayor De Blasio In St. Patrick’s Day Parade Boycott
It was pretty big news when De Blasio announced his intentions to boycott the St. Patrick’s Day parade (which celebrates its 252nd anniversary this year), but now Gothamist is reporting that the City Council is joining in on the boycott and since they represent the interests of the entire city this is officially a citywide issue.
De Blasio’s boycott stems from a disagreement with an official parade policy that prohibits LGBT individuals and groups from carrying signs or paraphernalia identifying themselves as LGBT. Sigh.
So, 21 days later, the City Council has put in their two cents. City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito announced yesterday that the City Council will not officially participate in the parade though individual members are more than welcome to march if they don’t agree with the decision.
“The St. Patrick’s Parade should be a time when all New Yorkers can come together and march openly as who they are—but right now that is not the case for the LGBT community,” Mark-Viverito said in a statement.
Accordingly, the Catholic League is not happy.
“What these activists want is the right to impose their agenda on Irish Catholics, neutering a day set aside to honor St. Patrick,” Catholic League president Bill Donahue retorted in a statement on the League’s website. “If some contrarians sought to use the club of the law, and public pressure, to force their way into the Gay Pride Parade—insisting on banners that read, “Straight Is Great”—they would be run out of town.”
Right.
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