Irish Queers Remind Us Of The 1991 & 1992 NYC St. Patrick's Day Parades

New York City's Irish Queers have posted a chilling flashback to the last time they marched in the St. Patrick's Day Parade:

Lest we forget where this all began, here's video from the 1991 and 1992 NYC St. Patrick's Parade. 1991 is the year ILGO marched in spite of the ban, with Mayor Dinkins, as guests of a progressive AOH contingent. The experience was so awful that ILGO refused to march again without full status -- as a contingent of out queers marching in their own community's parade. (Since then, much of the Irish and Irish American community has overcome their homophobia.) The next year, 1992, was first of many in which our protests were attacked or quashed and criminalized by the NYPD. In 1993, the parade organizers defined the parade in court as a "private, religious procession" in order to secure the right to their "explicitly anti-gay message."

The group continues to oppose the NYPD's participation. Mayor Bill De Blasio will this year break with longtime tradition and boycott the parade in support of the LGBT community.

(Via Good As You)