Irish ask: What's the big deal about letting gays in St. Pat's parades? (+video)
As organizers of the Boston and New York annual St. Patrick's Day parades resist letting LGBT marchers in, many back in Ireland wonder what their problem is.
Irish-American communities, particularly in Boston and New York, are known for being cohesive, having a strong community spirit, and, despite tilting Democratic come election, for being socially conservative.
Back in the aul’ sod, however, they stand accused of being bigots.
Ireland’s Prime Minister Enda Kenny has come under fire for agreeing to participate New York’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade, because it bans marchers carrying posters promoting LGBT rights.
Mr. Kenny has attempted to walk a political tightrope on the question of identity, saying: “The St. Patrick's Day parade is a parade about our Irishness and not about sexuality and I would be happy to participate in it.”
Nonetheless, a series of gay rights groups, supported by prominent campaigners and a trade union, have asked Mr. Kenny to cancel his plans to attend the “exclusionary” parade – something the city’s mayor, Bill De Blasio, has already said he will do – or at least wear a rainbow pin badge in solidarity with gay groups....
“If you look at the parades, I wouldn’t take the organizers as a barometer of where Irish America is. There are different shades of opinion, but there is certainly a Catholic conservative streak. Catholicism and Irishness would be closely tied together in their identity,” he says.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/20...s-parades-video
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