From: buckmr@rpi.edu (Ron Buckmire)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: UPI: Flap continues over gays in St Pats Day Parade
Date: 9 Jan 93 01:35:01 GMT
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Copyright 1993 by UPI.
Reposted with permission from the ClariNet Electronic Newspaper newsgroup
clari.news.local.nyc.  For more info on ClariNet, write to info@clarinet.com or
phone 1-800-USE-NETS.


	NEW YORK (UPI) -- Fighting over whether gays will be allowed to join
the annual St. Patrick's Day parade was well underway Thursday, with
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly saying he had not chosen the parade
sponsor.
	Competing groups for the police permit to sponsor the parade differ
on whether a gay Irish-American group should be allowed to march, and
Kelly has authority over which group gets the permit, he and the mayor
said.
	``No decision has been made as of yet,'' Kelly said while mobbed by
reporters at Police Headquarters with Mayor David Dinkins at his side.
	Dinkins quickly left, however, citing a scheduling conflict. He later
said he had discussed the parade with Kelly, but had not urged him to
choose a group that would allow the gay group to join.
	Traditional sponsors of the parade, the Ancient Order of Hibernians,
have refused to allow a gay group to march under its own banner, saying
the parade was a Catholic-oriented event and homosexuality conflicted
with their religious teachings.
	The ban has generated lawsuits, publicity and controversy over the
last few years.
	One year Dinkins marched with a dissident group that allowed the
Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization to join, but he refused to join the
parade last year because gays were forbidden.
	Recently, the Human Rights Commission overruled its administrative
judge to rule the gay ban was discriminatory.
	The police department released a statement that three groups had
applied for a permit to organize the famous Fifth Avenue parade, but the
three were not identified.
	Lawrence Downes, an attorney for the St. Patrick's Day Parade
Committee, Inc., whose organizers include former City Council President
Paul O'Dwyer, said his group was one of the applicants and the only one
that endorsed including gays.
	``At this point, we simply don't know'' what the commissioner will
do, he said.
	The traditional parade sponsors and the Brooklyn Night Court Emerald
Society had also applied, but the latter group Wednesday withdrew a
lawsuit against the city to speed a decision, Downes said.
	Their president, Richard Neville, and AOH County president Frank
Biernes could not be reached for comment.
	Manhattan City Councilman Tom Duane, who is gay, said outside City
Hall, ``I'm surprised that after two years, this problem still has not
been resolved. I can't believe the Police Commissioner would continue to
discriminate.''
	Noting that Kelly is a member of the police Emerald Society, which
has issued statements calling gays ``perverts,'' Duane said, ``He should
get out of the Emerald Society as quickly as possible if it continues to
discriminates against any group.''
   
---
Ron Buckmire
Association To Save Madonna From Nuclear War [New York Chapter]
11 Colvin Circle, Troy, NY 12180
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