Not quite over the rainbow
This year’s parade is the first to allow an openly gay group, but many advocates say this doesn’t go far enough
THIS year, Out@NBCUniversal, a group of LGBT and straight allies who work for NBC (producers of the parade telecast) will be marching up Fifth Avenue — but not everyone sees this as acceptance for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) groups that have been trying to gain entrance to New York’s St. Patrick’s Day parade for decades.
The Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization first asked to join in 1991, but the organizers would not allow them to march while identifying themselves as anything but Irish. Last year, major sponsors Heineken and Guinness dropped out in protest of the ban, but Guinness is back in this year because of the Out@UniversalNBC development.
Two groups who traditionally protest their exclusion are Irish Queers and the Lavender & Green Alliance. Emmaia Gelman, 40, a spokesperson for Irish Queers, tells the Post that some members were excited last fall when the decision was announced. “But they pretty quickly realized it was a trick, that the organizers weren’t going to let any Irish gay groups in.”
Says Gelman, who has Irish and Jewish parents (they made up her name, which is pronounced EM-ayer): “It doesn’t address the core concern that the parade is exclusionary. We still can’t be seen.”
NYC Mayor De Blasio agrees. He won’t be marching in support of the issue, which makes him the first mayor in 20 years to miss the parade. Meanwhile, the Irish Queers group will protest, as usual, on the west side of Fifth Avenue between 56th and 57th Sts. from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Gelman has been protesting the St. Patrick’s Day parade for 20 years.
“This year we will be displaying pictures and text of famous gays in Irish history and now. The parade organizers are trying to create the impression that LGBT people are not part of the Irish community either in Ireland or here, and that’s bull,” says Gelman.
Asked what the St. Patrick’s Day Parade would look like if they were allowed to march, she said it would probably be like other Irish parades that let people identify as LGBT, such as the St. Pat’s for All Parade in Queens. “It would be more Irish, much more celebratory.”
Gelman thinks the parade is moving away from its roots.
“It seems to be less and less Irish as they try to redefine it as a Catholic parade, so you get Basque dancers. (Yet) the people on sidelines are there for an Irish parade.”
Thankfully, the days when cops, firemen and county employees would march “screaming horrible things” at her group seem almost over. “The organizers have hung on to their homophobia more than the marchers have,” she says.
Gelman also believes the organizers have whipped up a fear that gays would show up in leather and chains.
“First, it’s March — the weather! And second, I’m not really interested in catering to their fears. I don’t want to insist everyone wear a tweed suit. The fears they have cooked up are of their own making.” Gelman, who has kids of her own, brings them with her to the parade protest. “They’ve never had a good St Patrick’s Day,” she says with a laugh.