Staten Island’s St. Patrick’s parade — ‘last in the world’ to exclude LGBTQ groups — steps off for 60th year
The Staten Island St. Patrick’s Day Parade stepped off for the 60th year on Sunday — but this time it’s got competition.
Despite prolonged pressure campaigns by local media and elected leaders, parade organizers still refuse to allow LGBT groups to march alongside the FDNY, local school bands and bagpipers.
So this year, a second St. Patrick’s Day parade — one that is inclusive of LGBTQ groups and will let them march under their own banners — will be held for the first time on March 17.
Staten Island’s celebration is “the only known parade in the world that excludes people,” opponents argue.
On Sunday, spectators decked out in green waved Irish flags, cheering and throwing beads in between swigs of beverages dyed green or orange along Forest Avenue in the West Brighton section of Staten Island. The parade also included a contingent of pro-life supporters.
Despite the festive atmosphere, the controversy permeated the event, with most spectators interviewed by The Post saying there should be a single, all-inclusive parade.
“It’s a shame everybody can’t be on the same page. Include them all,” said David Gonzalez, 38, a sanitation worker who lives in Staten Island and attended the parade with his wife and son.
The Buckley family of Staten Island lined up along parade route behind barriers, on which they’d hung signs bearing slogans in support of LGBT groups saying things like, “Jesus said ‘love one another’ he did not exclude anyone. I’m with Jesus.”
The alternate inclusive parade will again see Forest Avenue awash in a sea of green, but this time it will be joined by the rest of the colors of the rainbow.
Bonnie Buckley, 61, a retired teacher who lives in Staten Island, said attending the parade is an annual tradition for the family, but that she’ll be back on March 17 “when the gay people will be welcome.”
“Jesus Christ gave us a commandment, and that commandment is to love one another. I don’t think that as humans we get to decide who gets love,” she said.
Queens attorney Rory Buckley, 29, said although he was happy to be at this year’s event, he hopes this is the one and only year for split parades.
“I prefer one united parade, [where] we allow everyone to march who wants to march. At least there is some pushback on the other side, Pride Staten Island. Hopefully [the alternate parade] is a smashing success and they will come to their senses and have one big organized parade next year.”
The same sentiment was echoed by Jessica Felitti, 37, a real estate worker from Old Bridge, N.J. who attended the parade with her family.
“I think it’s silly to have two parades. They should have one and everybody should be included.”
One man who attended with a large family said he just couldn’t support what the LGBTQ groups stand for.
“We’re here to celebrate St. Patty’s Day. It’s a Catholic parade. No one cares what people do behind closed doors. [But], we don’t like it and we don’t stand for it.”
The Staten Island parade is perhaps the lone holdout in excluding LGBTQ groups. Others, like the Chicago South Side St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and the march in South Boston have included those groups for years.
Leaders including Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon — the borough’s top-ranking elected official of Irish descent — said the move to have a second, inclusive parade was long overdue.
In a joint statement also penned by Michael Cusick, CEO of the Staten Island Economic Development Corporation, and Staten Island Zoo CEO Ken Mitchel, the leaders said: “We should no longer have the only known parade in the world that excludes people.”
