New York's lezzie City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, will not be marching today in the St. Patrick's Day Parade on Fifth Avenue despite efforts by her aides and supporters to reach a compromise with parade organizers over inclusion of gays and lesbians. The Irish-American Quinn had sought to wear a symbol like a gay-pride pin, button or sash while marching alongside council members and gay supporters. But she said yesterday that those efforts had failed.
Now you know a lesbian is serious about her cause when she's even willing to wear a sash. I was thinking a necktie or suspenders might have been on the table.
Now having the organizers of the St. Patrick's Day parade refuse to allow an identifiable group of homosexuals march is nothing new ("We're not here, but we're still queer, so ya better start getting used it ... or something). For 16 years, the Ancient Order of Hibernians has refused to let the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization march as a group. But this year's discussion had a particularly disturbing tone. Remember those pesky SAT questions (BLANK is to BLANK as BLANK is to BLANK)? (I don't. People who grow up in the West take the ACT.) But in his refusal to accommodate Quinn's request, John Dunleavy, the parade chairman, taught me a new one: apparently Nazis are to Jews as gays are to Irish ... and the Ku Klux Klan is to blacks as gays are to Irish, or as he put it: "If an Israeli group wants to march in New York, do you allow neo-Nazis into their parade? If African-Americans are marching in Harlem, do they have to let the Ku Klux Klan into their parade?" He was also quoted as saying, "If we let the ILGO in, is it the Irish Prostitute Association next?"
So for all of the progress we've made, some things remain the same. Being of Irish descent, I'm completely disgusted with this embarrassment Dunleavy. I've got a good mind to skip the parade altogether and just get hammered in a gay bar somewhere. Whatdaya say, Christine?
Friday, March 17, 2006
Bleeding Green
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2 comments:
Give us some clues as to WHICH gay bar and believe me, we'll all come and join you. I heard what you reported on the news this morning and I could hardly wrap my brain around it. My husband (we were married in Toronto) went to the service this morning at the Cathedral (although we're Episcopals) and said she was there and the Cardinal introduced her nicely. Being the b1tch that EYE am, though, I said quickly, yeah, but did he refuse her communion? UCH !
p.s.: did you see the NEW parody billboard at http://www.exgaywatch.com/blog/archives/2006/03/billboard_parod.html?
best wishes, and THANK you for all your writing. I'm a huge fan.
Dunleavy's comments are welcome in one respect. At least we know now how he really feels. No sugar coating, there.
Did you ever wonder what it would be like if we could see people's thoughts in a bubble above their head or as a subtitle, as has been cleverly employed in a few movies. Dunleavy was thinking out loud sans filter.
What so many in gay and lesbian communities fail to realize----because we are lulled into Will-And-Grace-Queer-As-Folk-Queer-Eye-For-The-Straight-Guy-Capote/BrokeBack-Gay-Oscar complancency----is that we are still hated. And hatred of homosexuality and homosexuals is still taught in schools, churches, and homes to impressionable young children who grown up and become vile, bigots spewing hate, like Dunleavy. How we bring an end to this is by demanding that our straight allies (if there are any) stand up to bigotry. It's one thing to exclude a group from your parade, it is quite another to compare us to Nazis and the KKK. It made the press, but I didn't hear choruses of condemnation from Bloomberg, Pataki or Bush. Come to think of it, I didn't hear anything from Clinton (either of them), Schumer or Spitzer. I won't hold my breath, but I'd love to participate in a protest march against Mr. Dunleavy and his organization. Does anyone know where their offices are located? Where does he live? We can picket him with some great signs..... now that's what I call a circuit party :-)
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