LGBT Group To March In NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade

[hrmjustin]

AP | By JIM FITZGERALD

NEW YORK (AP) -- A gay group will march under its own banner for the first time in the world's largest St. Patrick's Day Parade, organizers said Wednesday.

The prohibition on identified gay groups in the centuries-old New York parade had made participation a political issue. Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio refused to march this year, and Guinness beer dropped its sponsorship.

The parade committee, in a statement made available to The Associated Press, said Wednesday that OUT@NBCUniversal, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender resource group at the company that broadcasts the parade, would be marching up Manhattan's Fifth Avenue on March 17 under an identifying banner.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/03/lgbt-st-patricks-day-para_n_5758572.html?utm_hp_ref=religion&ir=Religion

[hrmjustin]

1. Gay groups in St. Patrick’s parade OK with N.Y. Cardinal Dolan

David Gibson

NEW YORK (RNS) After years of strong resistance, organizers of New York’s St. Patrick’s Day parade on Wednesday (Sept. 3) said that gays and lesbians will be allowed to march under their own banner for the first time, and Cardinal Timothy Dolan — the parade’s grand marshal next March — has welcomed the move.

The decision is another sign of how quickly changing public attitudes toward gay people have pushed changes in state laws, government policies and the practices of private entities.

http://www.religionnews.com/2014/09/03/gay-parade-catholic-cardinal-dolan/