St. Patrick's Gay

NYC's second-in-command, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is flying to Ireland next week to march in Dublin's St. Patrick's Day parade, in protest of the continuing ban on gays from New York's parade. The NYC parade is the world's largest, with 150,000 marchers and millions of viewers.

The parade's organizers, the Catholic Church-run Ancient Order of Hibernians, successfully went to federal court a decade ago in order to protect their ban on green homos. Officially, gays are welcome to march as individuals....as long as nobody can tell they're gay. That means no rainbow flags, no pink shamrocks, no excellent haircuts, etc.

In 1994, Quinn was one of over 100 gay protesters arrested for civil disobedience at the parade. This year's parade is on a Saturday and if ILGO (the Irish Lesbian And Gay Organization) is planning a protest, I'll be there.