Loud but law-abiding: no arrests at ILGO protest

By Stephen McKinley

They screamed, they yelled, they protested — but that was about it.

At Saturday’s New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization staged a loud but law-abiding protest on the east side of Fifth Avenue at 53rd Street and St. Thomas Church.

At the foot of the church’s steps and corralled behind police barriers, the group vented its feelings as the parade geared up, and as each marching group passed by. This is its 11th year of exclusion from the parade by the parade organizers.

"Gays march in Dublin, gays march in Cork, why can’t gays march in New York?" they chanted, as well as "Two, four, six eight, how do you know your child is straight?" Many of the 100-strong group carried handwritten posters with various slogans, including "Irish gays need not apply," in reference to the infamous discriminatory posters of 19th Century America.

On this 2001 St. Patrick’s Day occasion, no ILGO protesters were arrested by the police, although three people from a separate group called Irish Queers were arrested elsewhere along the route.

Spokespersons for ILGO said that the issue of no arrests had been a conscious and collective decision.

"We want to build on the successes of past years," said Aine Duggan, a County Cork native aged 29, now living in New York City. Her colleague Richard McEwen said that the group "has been excluded and silenced by the AOH, and doesn’t want to be silenced a second time by being arrested by the NYPD. We just want to be a visible presence and a reminder, so that people can see who’s being excluded."

As the parade passed, a few parade members shook their heads at the group to indicate their disapproval, but some members of various marching groups acknowledged the ILGO protest with cheers and waves of encouragement.

"People are supportive as they go by," said McEwen, a 34-year-old law student. "Each year the response gets better."

Duggan agreed. "People have been cheering, and have been very supportive of what we are doing," she said. Both Duggan and McEwen said that the only group interested in excluding ILGO was the AOH, the parade organizers.

"We have to believe that we’ll be in the parade one day," McEwen said. "We just have to wait. We have to wait until certain people meet their maker and face judgment before God. I think it’s unconscionable that in this day and age the AOH committee has the right to decide who is and who isn’t Irish on St. Patrick’s Day."

Behind the ILGO protesters’ backs there was an occasional dissenting voice. Some teenage pedestrians following the parade route yelled insults as they walked past.

Afterward, the group joined with friends for Irish music and food at Ginger’s, an Irish bar in Park Slope, Brooklyn, until late in the evening.