After years of protests and controversy, New York’s Staten Island has finally agreed to lift the 60-year ban preventing LGBTQ+ groups from marching in the annual St Patrick’s Day Parade. All LGBTQ+ groups will be welcome to march in the borough’s annual Irish celebration for the first time ever in 2025. 

Staten Island is known for being the most conservative borough in New York, and it is believed to be the only city that was still actively preventing LGBTQ+ groups from marching in its St Patrick’s Day Parade. While bans against LGBTQ+ groups participating in Manhattan and Boston’s celebrations were lifted in 2014, Staten Island still refused to allow these organisations to join 10 years later.

Long-time parade organiser, Larry Cummings, refused to engage in dialogue about banning LGBTQ+ groups from marching, but claimed the Irish heritage and culture parade was “not a political or sexual identification parade,” adding: “Gays can march, but not under a banner.”

 

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After years of having their application rejected, in 2023, over a dozen supporters of the Pride Center showed up waving Pride flags and Irish flags to deliver the parade application, but Cummings would not let them inside.

Even though their permission to march with a banner was denied, the Pride Center of Staten Island still made their presence felt by encouraging spectators and local businesses to wear LGBTQ+ pins and wave Pride flags in solidarity.

Participation in the official parade has dwindled in recent years as many residents, businesses, and elected officials, including New York City Mayor Eric Adams, boycotted the parade over its exclusion of LGBTQ+ groups.

In 2024, the exclusion led to the formation of a separate inclusive St Patrick’s Day parade on Staten Island which earned community support. Following the long-standing parade held on Sunday, March 3, the community hosted a new parade on St Patrick’s Day, March 17, featuring Mayor Adams who marched alongside LGBTQ+ groups.

After long pushing for a more inclusive parade, today, we celebrate the decision by the Richmond County St. Patrick’s Day Parade committee to allow — for the first-time ever — LGBTQ+ groups to march with them at next year’s parade on Staten Island.

It is important ALL… pic.twitter.com/CgSQfQhcUE

— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) November 12, 2024

However, the community is celebrating the fact that next year, a separate parade will not be needed. As reported by Staten Island Advance, the parade’s newly appointed committee has opted for an inclusive policy and invited the Pride Center of Staten Island to take part in the borough’s 2025 parade.

In response to the decision by the Richmond County St Patrick’s Day Parade committee, Carol Bullock, the Pride Center’s executive director, said: “We are truly honored to be invited to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. This event is a time-honored tradition that brings people together from all walks of life to celebrate Irish culture, and we are excited to be part of this vibrant community celebration.”

Mayor Eric Adams added: “We are thrilled that, this year, Staten Island’s LGBTQ+ community will finally be welcome to march under their own banner in the Richmond County St. Patrick’s Day Parade.”

He applauded the committee’s decision “which was a long-time coming,” and added: “Congratulations to the Staten Island community, including the Pride Center of Staten Island and the Lavender and Green Alliance, for their long advocacy for inclusion.”

For the first time since the parade began 60 years ago, the previously excluded Pride Center of Staten Island will march under its own banner alongside dozens of community organisations in Staten Island’s official St Patrick’s Parade on March 2, 2025.