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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 23, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
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Green and Lavender

A diverse St. Patrick's Day parade for a change

Shelley Ettinger

Queens, N.Y.

Green and lavender were the colors at New York's first St. Patrick's Day parade on March 5. The colors--on balloons, banners, stickers, buttons and clothing--symbolized the parade organizers' commitment to unity and solidarity. Unlike the annual St. PatrickDay parade in Manhattan, which refuses to allow the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization to march, the event in the borough of Queens was open to all.

And all came. In marked contrast to the annual Manhattan parade, which is dominated by police and military groups and is virtually all white, the March 5 parade was strikingly multinational--thanks to organizers' successful efforts to reach out to the diverse Queens community.

Before marchers stepped off, Chief Dark Cloud of the Choctaw Nation opened the day with a prayer and blessing. Along with Irish groups and individuals, the parade also featured a Chilean dance troupe, young drummers from both Korea and Central America, and other representatives of the many nations represented in Queens, whose population is mostly immigrants.

There were labor contingents, from Laborers Local 79 and the Letter Carriers Flushing local. There were marchers demanding freedom for Irish political prisoners, and for U.S. political prisoners Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu-Jamal.

And there, marching proudly for the first time in a New York Irish parade, were groups from the lesbian, gay, bi and trans communities. They included ILGO and the Lavender and Green Alliance, a gay leather bagpipe band, Senior Action in a Gay Environment of Queens, the gay Catholic group Dignity-New York, the Lesbian and Gay Big Apple Chorus, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and others.

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