Fighting for the right to be Irish

By Julie O'Connor

Anyone can be Irish on St. Patrick's Day. That is, anyone who is heterosexual. Since 1991, Irish gay organizations like the Lavender and Green Alliance have been forbidden to march behind their banner in Manhattan's St. Patrick's Day Parade. This year, the Alliance finally received an invitation to march in the Bronx St. Patrick's Day parade. It appeared that gay Irish-Americans would finally be allowed to celebrate their heritage openly, alongside groups like the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), an Irish social organization which had vehemently excluded them in the past.

Yet once again, the Alliance was banned from marching. The Bronx invitation was abruptly revoked just a few days before the parade because the AOH and other church groups threatened to pull out if the Alliance marched. Because it had received an invitation, the Alliance showed up anyway, and several of its marchers, including founder Brendan Fay, New York City Councilwoman Christine Quinn, and New York State Senator Thomas K. Duane, were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. "We're celebrating a Catholic holy day...people who march should be in line with what we're celebrating—Irish pride and Irish Catholic pride," said Karin O'Connor, an organizer of the Bronx parade

But St. Patrick's Day is not just a religious holiday. It is a celebration of Irish culture and nationalism. Catholic groups have no more right to hijack the parade for their own purposes than do the hundreds of drunken revelers swigging beer up and down Fifth Avenue. St. Patrick's Day is no more a Catholic pride day than it is a Guinness appreciation day. Why aren't the Catholic groups who are invoking the mantra of "family values" as concerned about the rowdy drunks as they are about the peaceful gay marchers?

The parade itself is hardly a Catholic event. Many non-Catholics march in the St. Patrick's Day parade. Irish Protestants march in the parade. The New York City police force marches. The bands in the parade play music that is not religious music; it's secular Irish music. And the Irish dancing featured in the parade certainly has nothing to do with the Church. So why shouldn't there also be an Irish gay group in the parade?

Some Catholics argue that Irish gays are allowed to march in the parade—they simply have to march as individuals rather than under a group banner. A parade is no place to air the "dirty laundry" of gay-rights political statements, they say. Why can't Irish gays just be Irish like everyone else for a day?

In 1992, members of the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization did march in the parade as individuals without a banner. In a show of support, New York City Mayor David Dinkins chose to march in the gay contingent, rather than in the mayor's traditional position at the head of the parade. For nearly 40 blocks he was harassed, taunted, and, at one point, showered with beer.

It's no wonder homosexuals feel unable to blend into a culture that displays this kind of open prejudice. It's especially ironic that some Irish Catholics, members of a group that itself faced prejudice upon arrival in this country, should now snipe at another minority group that stands a few rungs below them on the ladder of social acceptance.

This year, in his St. Patrick's Day sermon, Cardinal John O'Connor urged Irish Catholics to avoid prejudice against others. "Our forefathers, our foremothers, came from some other country.... It is imperative that Irish, above all, remember their roots," he preached. But O'Connor has also repeatedly defended the decision to exclude gay groups from the parade. He has declared that political correctness is not worth "one comma in the Apostles' Creed." O'Connor may be right about the punctuation, but he's wrong about the parade. March 17th is a day to celebrate Irish heritage and a chance for the Irish to remember their roots by extending a welcome to their gay and lesbian kin. St. Patrick banished the snakes from Ireland; it's time to banish hypocrisy from his parade.

Julie O'Connor is a freshman in Davenport.

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