Staten Island St. Patrick’s Day Parade to Allow LGBTQ Groups
Following years of public pressure, parade organizers finally lifted a ban on LGBTQ groups marching in the annual parade.
The St. Patrick’s Day parade on Staten Island has finally broken a 60-year ban and will allow LGBTQ groups to march in the annual event.
Organizers have invited the Pride Center of Staten Island, a local community nonprofit, to march in the upcoming celebration on March 2, 2025.
The invitation was extended to the Pride Center — which had battled with past leadership over the exclusion of LGBTQ groups — following a change in leadership within the Richmond County St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee, which organizes the parade.
“The parade committee is entrusted with ensuring the focus of the parade remains upon Saint Patrick, the history, traditions, culture, and faith of the Irish people,” the committee said in a statement. “In this endeavor, the leadership of The Pride Center has assured the parade committee that they are ready to provide support to the parade in fulfilling this obligation.”
The parade committee, formerly led by Larry Cummings, had frequently cited the Catholic nature of the event and religious basis for the holiday as justification for excluding LGBTQ groups.
Cummings also objected to allowing LGBTQ groups to be visible because of his strong belief that the event was not about “sexual identification.”
However, similar parades in other cities, including Boston, Dublin, and New York City — which lifted its own ban in 2014 — had since relaxed the prohibition. Ahead of this most recent news, Staten Island’s parade was the very last to exclude LGBTQ groups from marching under their own banners, reports The New York Times.
“We are truly honored to be invited to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade,” Carol Bullock, the executive director of The Pride Center, said in a statement.
Though the Pride Center is the only LGBTQ group thus far to receive an invitation to march, the committee suggested that it would be open to other LGBTQ delegations.
Speaking at the parade committee’s news conference, City Councilman David Carr (R-Staten Island), who is gay, said that the end of the ban was “proof that the issue of sexual orientation no longer divides us.”
Similarly, Councilwoman Kamilah Hanks (D-Staten Island), noted that her transgender stepdaughter, who is half-Irish, will now be able to participate in the parade for the first time.
“This is an emotional thing for me, because it matters. Inclusion matters,” Hanks said. “Now this parade will truly represent all Staten Islanders.”
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