Finally: LGBT Groups Allowed to March in NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Get ready to watch history in the making this St. Patrick’s Day.

No, I’m not talking about your uncle’s bet that he can get in the Guinness Book of World Records by “drinking the most beers while standing on his head and reciting The Lord’s Prayer.” The New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade will, for the first time ever in its history, allow LGBT groups to march. OH FFS IT’S ABOUT GODDAMN TIME. Via the New York Daily News:

The parade — first held in 1766 and now the world’s largest — had faced mounting criticism in recent years for its longtime policy banning lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups from marching under a banner identifying themselves as gay. Gays were permitted to march but had to join other groups.

At this year’s installment, Mayor de Blasio protested the policy by refusing to march, as did City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and a host of council members. Guinness, Sam Adams and Heineken yanked their sponsorship.

Admittedly, I’m reluctant to hand out cookies to groups/people who have stubbornly blocked the advancement of human rights for their own willfully misguided reasons yet suddenly have an about face when threatened with boycott after boycott after boycott. But this decision is long overdue and I can’t resist the urge to air high-five all the people who finally made this happen. There is absolutely no reason in the world why a community parade shouldn’t include a group that represents one of the biggest, most vocal yet still still horribly marginalized people within that community. But who the hell am I to say! How about taking the word of a notoriously judge-y person who heads the Catholic Church in New York:

Following the surprise announcement Wednesday, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, who will serve as grand marshal for the 2015 parade, released a statement saying the parade’s organizers have his “confidence and support.”

[…]

The head of New York’s Catholics backed the committee. “My predecessors and I have always left decisions on who would march to the organizers of the individual parades,” Dolan said in a statement. “As I do each year, I look forward to celebrating Mass in honor of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland and the patron saint of this archdiocese, to begin the feast, and pray that the parade would continue to be a source of unity for all of us.”

Even the Flanders uber church-y types have the support of this decision. Again, to sum up: The Cardinal in the biggest U.S. city who represents one of the most horribly anti-gay churches in the world basically just said “LOL IDGAF IF THE GAYS MARCH IN THIS PARADE, KTHANX.” If you are the one person in the world who still has a stick up their ass about letting LGBT people march in this parade, then the only logical and sane response to you is this: