St. Patrick's Day Controversy

For centuries, the Irish were among the most discriminated against group in the United States and Great Britain. Until the early 20th century, they suffered job, housing and other forms of discrimination in the United States. A hundred years ago in the Northeast, window signs advertising for job openings included the words “no Irish need apply.” There’s even a word that describes hostility towards the Irish -hibernophobia, derived from Hibernia, the name the Romans gave Ireland. The struggle of Irish Americans against discrimination parallels the historical struggle of American LGBTs against homophobia. The Irish should therefore feel a special empathy for LGBTs in general, and especially for Irish LGBTs, who have been doubly discriminated against.

The vast majority of St. Patrick’s celebrations exclude LGBTs. They can do so legally because they’re protected under Hurley v. the Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston. There are competing First Amendment claims: the organizers' right to decide what message their parade will send out and the unwanted marchers' right to use the city streets to express themselves. It also brings up the issue of Separation of Church and State, as this exclusive Catholic event uses city funds, streets, and police. The landmark 1995 U.S. Supreme Court decision said the private group organizing the march can do so under the Constitution’s First Amendment. The Court ruled, “The selection of contingents to make a parade is entitled to First Amendment protection. Parades such as petitioners' are a form of protected expression because they include marchers who are making some sort of collective point.” For years, LGBT groups have protested their exclusion from St. Patrick’s Day Parades (http://www.ny1.com/5-manhattan-news-content/top_stories/115375/gay-rights-group-protests-exclusion-from-st--patrick-s-day-parade).

On the other hand, many feel that gay Irishmen should concentrate on their ethnicity, rather than their sexual preference, on St. Patrick’s Day. The same Supreme Court decision allowing private groups to exclude gays from St. Patrick’s Day parades also allows Gay Pride parade organizers to exclude anti-gay groups. If this issue fell under anti-discrimination law, there could be anti-gay marriage groups such as Focus on the Family or the National Organization for Marriage marching in Gay Pride parades all across the country.

The decision of whether to march is difficult for politicians. Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the first Italian-American mayor of Boston, has spurned participation in the parade for years because of the organizers' refusal to allow gay groups to register and march. Menino participates each year in the breakfast on the morning of the parade, often does media interviews at the head of the parade for television coverage of the event, and visits South Boston residents' homes during the parade. But as a symbol of his opposition to what he considers the organizers' discriminatory policy, he has consistently refused to march along the route. Apparently not wanting to risk alienating any of his Irish constituents, New York Mayor Bloomberg does march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade down Fifth Avenue.

The annual March 17 parade down New York’s Fifth Avenue is the oldest in the U.S. and the largest St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the world. For the last few years it has been a tradition for my friends and me to attend the parade, but this was the first year I was made aware of this issue. As I sat on a wall in Central Park watching the parade go by, I was struck by the irony of a parade that excludes the LGBT community in a city that is characterized by liberal ideals. Based on conversations with fellow New Yorkers, I have concluded that many attending the parade are not intentionally expressing agreement with the Irish-Catholic beliefs of the parade organizers. Many, like myself, have just never had exposure to this topic. Although I think the Court had an unfortunate interpretation of the First Amendment, which resulted in exclusiveness, I know that like all issues, there are two sides. However, I now feel more inclined to understand what political statements we sometimes make inadvertently, sometimes by our very presence.