Staten Island St. Patrick’s Day Parade ends 60-year ban on LGBTQ+ groups

With new leadership in place, the U.S.A. Staten Island St. Patrick’s Day Parade will for the first time in 60 years permit LGBTQ+ groups to participate under their own banner. The event has gained notoriety for its long-standing refusal to lift the ban, despite mounting pressure to change. However, Edward Patterson, the new leader of the Richmond County St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee, has made this change possible.

For many years, the Staten Island parade was seen as one of the few St. Patrick’s Day celebrations that still excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, citing the teachings of the Catholic Church to justify its stance. Prior to this change, LGBTQ+ individuals had also faced a 20-year ban from the Manhattan parade—the largest St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the world—which was lifted in 2014.

“Quite simply, it’s just time,” Patterson stated to reporters on Tuesday. “People stepped up with a change in mindset that, frankly, wanted the controversy to go away.”

Parade organisers have invited the Pride Center of Staten Island to participate in the parade scheduled for March 2, 2025, an opportunity that executive director Carol Bullock described as an honour.

“This event is a time-honored tradition that brings people together from all walks of life to celebrate Irish culture,” Bullock expressed in an Instagram statement, “and we are excited to be part of this vibrant community celebration.”

Bullock has tirelessly advocated for the right to participate in the parade, having submitted applications for years despite facing repeated rejections, according to ‘LGBTQ Nation’.

“Our parade is for Irish heritage and culture,” former parade committee president Larry Cummings reportedly stated in 2018. “It is not a political or sexual identification parade.”

In 2020, he reiterated this sentiment, expressing to the Advance that “it’s a non-sexual identification parade and that’s that.”

In 2022, Bullock recounted how she personally submitted her application to Cummings, who immediately discarded it, along with those from organisations advocating for LGBTQ+ firefighters and officers.

The parade organisers have not only resisted LGBTQ+ participation but have also physically removed individuals whom they perceived to be supporting LGBTQ+ rights in the past. Additionally, they have previously prohibited certain individuals from taking part.

In 2020, Madison L’Insalata, Miss Staten Island, was unable to march after coming out as bisexual, and Republican City Councilman Joseph Borelli was barred from participating due to wearing a rainbow pin on his jacket.

“They physically blocked me, my wife, and two boys in strollers,” Borelli recalled, adding, “I didn’t come with it looking for an argument. My friends handed a pin to me. I really didn’t think it was a big affront to the Irish.”

These strict policies led many New York officials to refuse participation in the parade. Last year, LGBTQ+ activists chose to organise an alternative, more inclusive event. The decision to lift the ban on the original parade was likely influenced by the strong turnout for the inclusive event, which saw many groups boycott the exclusive event.

Now, according to SI Live, the lifting of the LGBTQ+ ban has positioned the parade to be one of the largest in recent years.

“It is not lost on the parade committee how controversial this event has become,” the committee acknowledged in a statement. “The end to this controversy is to the benefit of the committee, the Pride Center, and the greater Staten Island community.”

“This is an emotional thing for me, because it matters. Inclusion matters,” City Council member Kamillah Hanks, whose stepdaughter is of Irish descent and transgender, told reporters. “Now this parade will truly represent all Staten Islanders.”

“Knowing how much the community supported us with the second parade, I know the feeling that everyone else is going to have out there now,” Bullock expressed to the New York Times. “That’s the most gratifying thing.”