Tuesday, February 4, 2014

De Blasio Won't March In St. Patty's Parade Due To Restrictions On Gay Pride Signs

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said today that he will not march in the city's annual St. Patrick's Day parade because organizers of the event will not allow participants to carry gay pride signs, reports Talking Points Memo.

"No, I am not planning on marching in the parade," de Blasio said at a press conference, according to TPM. "I will be participating in a number of other events to honor the Irish heritage of this city, but I simply disagree with the organizers of that parade."

Previous Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani (R) both marched in the parade while they were in office.

Gay participants can march in the parade, but they are not allowed to identify their sexual orientation.

The president of the Catholic League, Bill Donohue, who will lead the group's parade delegation, was pleased to hear that de Blasio would be skipping the event.

"Personally, I am delighted," he wrote in a statement on the Catholic League website. "I do not want to march with a public official who does not want to be associated with Irish Catholics."

5 comments:

  1. The diminutive form of Patrick is NOT Patty.

    It's Paddy---because in Gaelic, the name is Padraic.

    So it's St Paddy's Day.
    .
    And the Gays CAN march in the parade.
    They only have to obey rules.(no buttless chaps and such).

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  2. Two ways to look at this:

    First of all, this parade will congeal public roads. When it does this, tax paying citizens are inconvenienced even though they've paid taxes for the use of those roads. Therefor, tax paying homosexuals have a right to be there and have gay pride signs.

    The second way, since the parade is organized by private citizens, they have a right to exclude people. While i personally have nothing against homosexuals per se, i am also sick and tired of homosexuals using events as platforms for their POLITICAL agenda. After all, there is no other need for anyone to know that they are gay any more than it is for anyone to know which people on the parade are straight.

    Having said that, the roads belong to everybody (no private property here) as long as everybody pays taxes for them. And the government is not allowed to discriminate, therefor homosexuals should be allowed to use their 1st amendment rights while anywhere on the streets.

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    Replies
    1. Tony, I am not questioning your reasoning, but making a general comment. It appears to me that whenever such a conflict exists, it is because government is involved in something it shouldn't be. If the roads were privately-owned their would be no issue.

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    2. Oh i completely agree with that.

      But unfortunately, that's not the situation. And in the situation as it is, one must find what is at least the more libertarian side of a situation.

      The situation is that roads are public and therefor taxpayers are all paying for it, which means they (should) have a first amendment right whilst on it, whether the organizer of St. Patrick's day parade like it or not.

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  3. Sounds to me like good news. The question is, how do we get politicians out of our lives altogether?

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