The Leprechaun Trap Video

The gay ban of New York's St Patrick's Day parade is un-Irish

As a gay guy from Dublin, I know how modern Ireland celebrates St Patrick's Day. So I'll pass on New York's outmoded bigotry.

The St Patrick's day parade in Dublin, Ireland is a gay-friendly event, unlike its New York city counterpart. Photograph: Julien Behal/PA
As an Irish person, it's an event I say I like a little less every year. But with a sort of playful resignation: it's the St Patrick's Day parade again, is it?

I suppose I'd better complain about leprechaun hats and jarring racial stereotypes, but eventually, wear some sort of green thing and drink too much beer, in spite of myself. Admittedly, the celebration in Dublin can be a lot of fun, even if it is an unabashed kitsch-fest. This year, I actually had even higher hopes, because I recently moved to New York - home of the world's largest St Patrick's parade. Surely, it would be better here, I thought: the Fifth Avenue march could only be exciting.

I was wrong. It's not the green outfits, it really isn't, and it's not the promotional websites that look like they were somehow designed in 1950. No, as a gay person, my negative attitude stems from something completely different: its organizers ban me, and other gay people, from openly participating. In one of the most diverse ci.