Gay Group Gets Permit for St. Patrick’s Day Parade
New York City issued a permit to a lesbian and gay rights group on this day, allowing it to march in the upcoming annual St. Patrick’s Day parade.
The permit ended a three-year conflict with Ancient Order of Hibernians, which had organized the annual parade for more than 100 years, over whether lesbians and gay groups could participate in the parade. The Hibernians pledged to fight the decision in court, arguing that it violated their First Amendment right to associate with people of their own choosing.
Similar disputes over the right of lesbians and gays to participate in St. Patrick’s Day parades occurred in other cities.
Learn more at Lambda Legal: http://www.lambdalegal.org/
Learn more: Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney, Out For Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America (1999)
Watch lesbians and gays protest exclusion from a St. Patrick’s Day Parade: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsZvOLO8IVk
For a great perspective on the “long Sixties:” Tom Hayden, The Long Sixties: From 1960 to Barack Obama (2009)