The organizers of the New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade said on Wednesday that they were lifting a ban on gay groups participating in the march, ending a policy that had prompted protests, court battles and bitter debate for decades.
The decision to allow a gay group to march under its own banner, first reported by The Irish Voice, came as Mayor Bill de Blasio threatened to once again boycott the parade and the organizers faced pressure from employees of NBC Universal, which broadcasts the festivities.
One of the event’s biggest sponsors, Guinness, pulled out last year and more companies threatened to follow. The Irish government also threatened not to send a delegation unless the policy changed, according to an official familiar with the negotiations.
Christine C. Quinn, the former speaker of the City Council, who is gay and has long fought to have the policy changed, said that the ban had been a personal affront.
“To have the parade point a finger and say to me and others, ‘You’re not as good as these other Irish people,’ has been very, very painful,” Ms. Quinn said. “That is now coming to an end.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio attended St. Patrick’s Day Mass in March, but boycotted the parade. CreditMichael Appleton for The New York Times
The parade has been a part of the New York City landscape for more than 250 years. The annual event now draws hundreds of thousands of spectators and participants who turn the center of Manhattan into a sea of green.
But since the early 1990s, the celebration has found itself at the center of the struggle for gay rights because of its ban on gay groups.
“Organizers have diligently worked to keep politics — of any kind — out of the parade in order to preserve it as a single and unified cultural event,” the organizers said in their statement. “Paradoxically, that ended up politicizing the parade.”
The parade committee said that OUT@NBCUniversal, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employee resource group, would be marching up Fifth Avenue on March 17 under a banner identifying itself.
In the future, other groups will be free to apply, according to Bill O’Reilly, a spokesman for the organizers.
In the past, gays could march but were not allowed to carry anything identifying them as a group.
As public attitudes have shifted over the years, parade officials have encouraged gays to participate but kept in place the prohibition on banners.
Mr. O’Reilly said the parade was “remaining loyal to church teachings,” and he announced that Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the Roman Catholic archbishop of New York, would serve as the grand marshal of the next parade.
On Wednesday, Cardinal Dolan released a statement saying the parade organizers have his “confidence and support.”
“My predecessors and I have always left decisions on who would march to the organizers of the individual parades,” he said. “As I do each year, I look forward to celebrating Mass in honor of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, and the patron saint of this Archdiocese, to begin the feast, and pray that the parade would continue to be a source of unity for all of us.”
In recent years, as same-sex marriage became legal in New York and many other states, the ban was increasingly seen as out of touch and gay activists continued to push for change.
Their case was strengthened when Pope Francis signaled a shift in how Catholic leaders talk about homosexuality. When asked about his views on the subject by reporters last summer, his answer was direct and simple.
“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
Against this backdrop, Mr. de Blasio was elected, and he quickly decided to refuse to march, becoming the first mayor to boycott the parade in 20 years.
Two of his predecessors, Rudolph W. Giuliani and Michael R. Bloomberg, marched every year.
David N. Dinkins boycotted the event in 1993, in the wake of widespread protests after organizers won a court battle to exclude a group of openly gay Irish-Americans from participating.
Cardinal John J. O’Connor, capturing the sentiment at that time, declared that political correctness was not worth “one comma in the Apostles’ Creed.”
In lifting the ban, parade organizers conceded that the policy was politicizing the parade.
Even staunch defenders of the ban seemed to be willing to accept the change.
William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said that gays have never been barred from marching, “anymore than pro-life Catholics have,” but were not permitted to have their own unit.
“I have been assured that the rules have been formally changed to allow both of these groups, as well as others, to march under their own banner,” he said. “That being the case, there should be no controversy.”
While Mr. de Blasio boycotted last year’s parade, a coalition of liberal activists and city officials urged him to go further, saying City Hall should restrict public workers, such as firefighters and police officers, from marching in the parade while wearing formal city uniforms.
Irish Queers, one of the leading advocacy groups for gay and lesbian Irish-Americans, said that lifting the ban was a good first step but that it hoped wider participation would be allowed.
“We welcome this cracking of the veneer of hate, but so far Irish L.G.B.T. groups are still not able to march in our community’s parades,” the group said in a statement. “The fight continues.”
Sarah Kate Ellis, the president of the gay rights group Glaad, said that two decades of steady pressure forced the change.
“It’s about time,” Ms. Ellis said. “Discrimination has no place on America’s streets, least of all on Fifth Avenue. As an Irish-Catholic American, I look forward to a fully inclusive St. Patrick’s Day Parade that I can share with my wife and children, just as my own parents shared with me.”
The City Council speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito, also hailed the change as a victory that she hoped signaled even greater acceptance.
Protesters held signs along the St. Patrick’s Day Parade route on Fifth Avenue last March. The parade organizers said on Wednesday that they were lifting a ban on the participation of gay groups.Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times
“This is a welcome first step and a good day for New Yorkers who believe in fairness, equality and human rights,” she said. “For far too long the St. Patrick’s Day Parade excluded New Yorkers just because of who they love. I am happy organizers finally realized that this parade is better when all are invited.”
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