A Parade for All on St. Patrick’s Day

St Patrick's Day has about as many iterations and interpretations as participants. Why someone comes out for St. Pat's Day varies depending on the level of your "Irishness." You might be a direct descendant of an Irish Immigrant, raised in a family steeped in Catholic tradition that pays homage to the venerated Saint. Or you might be a frat boy hanging out with his bros, drunk to the green hills of wherever, and you just really like watching Chicago's river-dyed fluorescent green. Whether you're a pious believer or a hard-core partier, or both, you love this day and celebrate it with gusto!

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by FogoAzul NYC (@fogoazulny)

For members of the LGBTQ community who also identify strongly with their Irish history and background, equal participation in the grand parades of cities large and small has often been fraught with struggle and sometimes violence. New York City's parade, undoubtedly the largest and most popular, has a history of barring gay members of the Irish community from marching alongside their straight brethren, and so some rabble-rousing upstarts decided to change that.

Participants of the first St. Pat's for All Parade in 2000. Photo courtesy of La Guardia and Wagner Archives - https://www.flickr.com/photos/laguardiaandwagnerarchives/52940692436/

Brendan Fay, an Irish immigrant and religious teacher, alongside his friend Turloch McNallis and others, formed the St. Pat's for All Parade in March 2000, marching on the 5th of that month with a wide and varied group of participants. Straight and gay, Irish and non-Irish, groups of many faiths and ethnicities wound their way through the Woodside and Sunnyside in Queens, traditional Irish enclaves. Under the motto "Cherishing All the Children of the Nation Equally," which originates from the Proclamation of the Irish Republic during the Easter Rising of 1916, they brought community members together from all walks of life. Hillary Rodham Clinton, still the First Lady at the time, brought a huge boost of publicity and support with her participation. Fay's marching led to his ousting as a teacher, and to his work as an activist.

Attempts to be included in the main parade started in 1990 when the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization attempted to apply for inclusion in Manhatten's 1991 parade. They were denied, then told they could march but with no identifying banners. Their participation was met with heckling and objects thrown at the gay marchers. In 1992 Mayor David Dinkins boycotted the parade, and for years after, a struggle for equal inclusion was fought. A Supreme Court ruling supporting Boston's organizers from excluding openly gay participants bolstered the NYC organizers, and it wasn't until 2016 that the Lavender and Green Alliance, organized by Fay in 1994, was permitted to be fully recognized and march with their identifying banner.

Ms. Colombia at St. Pat’s for All parade, 3 March 2013., Photo courtesy of Elyaqim Mosheh Adam אליקים משה אדם from Jackson Heights, New York.

But it was the ongoing St. Pat's for All Parade that kept going year after year in Queens that kept the momentum for fuller inclusion rolling. And since then, their spirit has spread to other cities. Here is a list of just some of the all-inclusive St. Patrick's Day parade events happening, or have already happened, across the country.

St. Pat's for All member Turloch McNallis died in April of 2020 from complications due to Covid, but his spirit lives on.

Brendan Fay and Turlock McNallis arrested during 1996 NYC parade. Photo courtesy of La Guardia and Wagner Archives - https://www.flickr.com/photos/laguardiaandwagnerarchives/52940694581/.

This year's St. Pat's for All parade already occurred on March 4th, but if you're in Staten Island, you can join in that city's first-ever LGBTQ+ Irish parade, held separately from the city's regular parade, long-boycotted by NYC mayors. Because those organizers are dicks! That parade will be held this Sunday the 17th.

How are you celebrating your St. Patrick's Day?

Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram.