Irish Lesbian & Gay Organization (ILGO) members (including spokesperson Anne Maguire, far right) protest before the New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade, March 17, 1995. Photo by Jon Levy. In late 1990, the ILGO requested to become the first lesbian and gay organization to march in the centuries-old New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade; the request was denied. In an effort to quell a growing political firestorm, New York City Mayor David Dinkins brokered a compromise: the ILGO marched in the 1991 parade as Dinkins' guests on the condition that the group carry no banners or otherwise identify itself. Nonetheless, Dinkins and the ILGO were verbally assaulted throughout the parade and, at one point, Dinkins had to dodge two beer cans thrown from the crowd. So began a twenty-five year battle in New York City (which had equivalents in major cities across the country; the Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bi-Sexual Group of Boston would take their fight to the Supreme Court, and lose) between equality activists, on the one hand, and Irish-Catholic parade organizers and politicians seeking to use their forum, on the other. The 1995 protest, pictured here, was particularly massive, resulting in the arrests of eighty-eight ILGO members. This year, thanks in part to Mayor Bill de Blasio's boycott of the parade during his first years in office, more than three hundred LGBTs will march openly under the banner of the Lavender and Green Alliance. #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #lgbttheirstory #gay #bi #trans #lesbian #irish #pride #ilgo #annemaguire #theystoodup #irishandqueer #rockthesham #lavenderandgreenalliance (at New York, New York)
