One St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York Still Bans L.G.B.T. Groups. “It is not a political or sexual identification parade,” the organizers of the event said.

New York Times ^ | February 28, 2020 | Liam Stack

[karpov]

...

Organizers of the Staten Island parade did not respond to messages seeking comment over the past week. But they have publicly argued in the past that L.G.B.T. groups are not appropriate for a parade dedicated to St. Patrick, who is the patron saint of both Ireland and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.

Those arguments are similar to ones made for many years by organizers of the New York City parade, which is preceded each year by a special Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

...

Larry Cummings, the president of the Staten Island parade committee, did not respond to messages seeking comment over the past week.

Kathleen MacDonald, the treasurer of the parade committee, hung up when reached on the phone by a reporter. She did not respond to a subsequent message seeking comment.

But in recent years Mr. Cummings has explained the ban on L.G.B.T. groups to news organizations that serve Staten Island or the Irish diaspora.

In 2018, he told The Irish Voice, a newspaper in New York City, that the inclusion of gay groups in the Manhattan parade “has no bearing on Staten Island.”

“Our parade is for Irish heritage and culture,” he told the newspaper. “It is not a political or sexual identification parade.”

He added: “Gays can march, but not under a banner.”

Speaking last week to The Staten Island Advance, a local newspaper, he was more blunt.

“Here’s the deal, it’s a nonsexual identification parade and that’s that. No, they are not marching,” Mr. Cummings said. “Don’t try to keep asking a million friggin’ questions, OK?”

That decision has cast a pall over the parade and drawn criticism from elected officials from both parties, many of whom have said they will not march, including Mayor Bill de Blasio

[kearnyirish2]

“I never understand the desire of homosexuals to force themselves into unrelated events.”

Really? They are trying to force acceptance of their perversion on all, “normalizing” it. What a sad existence...

[NetAddicted]

One website descrbed frigging as obscene. I thought frigging was a replacement for an obscene word.

[NetAddicted]

A few years ago, CDC did a survey which identified 1.8% as homosexual. I think 0.4% were bisexual.

[cloudmountain]

A few years ago, CDC did a survey which identified 1.8% as homosexual. I think 0.4% were bisexual.

Predictably very low numbers yet with the press/media attentkion that homosexuals get you'd think that they were 1/3 or more of the population.