Several brewers, including Guinness, said they were refusing to sponsor St. Patrick’s Day parades in New York and Boston, while mayors of the cities canceled their participation in the events, after gay people weren’t allowed to march under LGBT banners.
Irish brewer Guinness, a key sponsor of the New York City parade,
announced on Sunday afternoon it was withdrawing its
participation.
“Guinness has a strong history of supporting diversity and
being an advocate for equality for all. We were hopeful that the
policy of exclusion would be reversed for this year's
parade,” a statement by brewer’s parent company, Diageo,
reads. “We will continue to work with community leaders to
ensure that future parades have an inclusionary policy.”
A few days earlier, two more brewers dropped their sponsorship of
St. Patrick’s parades over the gay rights issue: Heineken in New
York and Sam Adams in Boston.
Parade organizers have not just faced economic pressure,
political tension has also run high, as Boston's Irish-American
mayor, Marty Walsh, decided not to visit the city's St. Patrick's
Day parade, having failed to persuade organizers to allow gay and
lesbian activists to march openly.
"As mayor of the City of Boston, I have to do my best to
ensure that all Bostonians are free to participate fully in the
civic life of our city,” Walsh said as cited by Reuters.
“Unfortunately, this year, the parties were not able to come
to an understanding that would have made that possible."
Last week New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would not take
part in the parade on Monday, also citing the ban on open
participation by LGBT community members.
Parade organizers have explained they did not actually ban gay
groups from marching, but did not allow them to carry LGBT signs
and banners, as that runs contrary to Roman Catholic values,
which many in the Irish community uphold.
Despite controversy surrounding the event and pressure from LGBT
rights lobby, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny attended Boston's
annual St. Patrick's Day breakfast on Sunday and said he planned
to march Monday in New York.
"The St. Patrick's Day parade [in New York] is a parade about
our Irishness and not about sexuality, and I would be happy to
participate in it," Kenny said in Dublin before leaving for
the US, according to AP.
The view is hardly shared by most US politicians, as organizers
of St. Patrick's Day parades in New York and Boston have in
recent years felt increasingly pressurized into allowing openly
gay marchers, as more and more local officials decline to take
part in the parade.