I’d like to see the pope and Church leaders apologize to the LGBT community for their theology that defines us as intrinsically disordered.” Patrick’s parade, said, “The hateful speech from the pulpits has to end. Francis Xavier in Chelsea, which expelled Dignity from its worship space in 1987 but has in recent years become known as an LGBT-friendly parish, marched with its banner face forward after having turned it around several years ago under pressure from the Archdiocese.īrendan Fay of Lavender & Green, which led the big LGBT contingent in the St. Lewis Speaks-Tanner, president of Dignity USA, said that of the statements made by bishops nationwide about Orlando, “all but four of them made no mention of the LGBT community.” How simple it would have been for him to step out and make a sign of solidarity in the wake of Orlando, but it was beyond him. Patrick’s Cathedral once again the morning of the march. Patrick’s Day Parade, but the anti-gay massacre did not move him to make peace with his brothers and sisters in Dignity/ New York, who silently witnessed outside St.
| DONNA ACETOįormer City Councilmember Margarita Lopez, an out lesbian, said, “Until all the religions - Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist - all accept that we are children of God like everybody else, the gay fight is not over.”Ĭardinal Timothy Dolan, the Catholic archbishop of New York, may have allowed a gay Irish contingent into the St. Jessica Gonzalez, LGBT coordinator for the New York office, said, “We’re not the old bureau” - a reference to the not-so-distant past when the FBI’s main role viz-a-viz the community was conducting surveillance of LGBT and AIDS groups and sometimes infiltrating them. The New York office of the FBI - the FBI! - marched for the first time with 50 in its contingent. FIRE FLAG, the LGBT group for the Fire Department, has also grown significantly, augmented by many in the emergency medical services.Īnger at anti-LGBT religious, political hate and at guns takes center stage But the Gay Officers Action League, which started out in 1982 with one out cop, Charlie Cochrane, accompanied by a few others in various modes of disguise, now had a thousand in their contingent and 300 uniformed officers, including Aiden Budd and Brooke Bukowski carrying a banner as the first out transgender officers in the NYPD. “Pride in Flight” for LGBT people in the airline industry was, not surprisingly, a large contingent.
It is, however, an indication of just how many groups want to be in the march, including scores of corporate contingents that advertise their desire for the community’s patronage and have their LGBT employees demonstrate that they work in an accepting environment. The New York march down Fifth Avenue on Sunday, June 25, this reporter’s 43rd, stepped off at noon from Midtown and the last contingent did not disperse in the West Village until 8:30 p.m.