PHOTOS - The years of controversy surround the New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade 
 
 A gay group of employees from NBC will march in next year’s New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade behind their own banner, a source with knowledge of the ongoing parade controversy has told the Irish Voice. 
 
 On Wednesday, September 3, at a reception at the New York Athletic Club, Cardinal Timothy Dolan will be named as the grand marshal of the 254th St. Patrick’s Day parade, set to step off on Tuesday, March 17. 
 
 In a historic move aimed at defusing the storm that erupted this year over the exclusion of gay banners in the march, the addition of a banner identifying gay NBC staffers is a compromise forged at the insistence of several New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee members, including Dr. John Lahey, president of Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, and Francis X. Comerford, chief revenue officer for NBC-owned TV stations. 
 
 NBC, the long-time broadcast home of the St. Patrick’s Day parade, was prepared to drop its coverage unless a compromise that resulted in the inclusion of a gay group was brokered. 
 
 The withdrawal of parade sponsorship last year by Guinness was also a huge factor in bringing about the change, according to a former grand marshal. 
 
 "Once an iconic company like Guinness showed it was standing up pretty much everyone else had to follow," said the source, who revealed that Guinness had met with parade figures on several occasions since to help seek a compromise. 
 
 The NBC network has a large and visible presence on Fifth Avenue for the event, and a majority of committee officials and trustees are on board with the inclusion of gay NBC staffers in the line of march. 
 
 It is unknown whether this development will lead to a more widespread gay presence next March 17 – for example, if the NBC marchers will be accompanied by other participants who would also like to identify as gay. 
 
 Read more: Timeline of the NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade’s LGBT controversy (PHOTO & VIDEO) 
 
 This year’s parade was marred by sponsor withdrawals and politicians who refused to take part due to the ongoing exclusion of gay groups marching with their own banners. 
 
 Though the parade committee has for years steadfastly maintained the policy, it was freshly highlighted in February by new Mayor Bill de Blasio, who said he would not take part in the event unless gay groups could also march. He was the first mayor to boycott the parade since David Dinkins, who also protested the exclusion of gay groups and worked to broker a solution that ultimately never arrived. 
 
 De Blasio was quickly followed by a succession of New York politicians also opting out of the march, including City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who called for a council-wide boycott of the event and was more or less granted her wish as only a handful of the 51 council members took part. 
 
 More damaging for the parade itself was the withdrawal of long-term sponsors Heineken and Guinness. 
 
 “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. As this has not come to pass, Guinness has withdrawn its participation. We will continue to work with community leaders to ensure that future parades have an inclusionary policy,” a Guinness statement at the time said. 
 
 Though some establishments also chose to institute their own Heineken/Guinness boycotts in support of the parade’s policy against gay banners, a concerted effort has been in place behind the scenes since March 18 to broker a compromise acceptable to all interests in advance of next year’s march. 
 
 The consensus, according to several Irish Voice sources, was clear – a repeat of this year’s sponsor withdrawals and attendant negative publicity was unacceptable and clearly damaging to the well-being of the march from many standpoints, including financial, political and public relations-wise. It is also believed that another long-time parade sponsor, the Ford Motor Company, was prepared to end its financial support unless a compromise was put in place. ||||| NEW YORK (AP) — Organizers of the world's largest St. Patrick's Day Parade say they're ending a ban and allowing a gay group to march under its own banner for the first time. 
 
 The prohibition on identified gay groups in the centuries-old New York parade had made participation a political issue. Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio refused to march this year, and Guinness beer dropped its sponsorship. 
 
 The parade committee, in a statement made available to The Associated Press, said on Wednesday that OUT@NBCUniversal, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender support group at the company that broadcasts the parade, would be marching up Manhattan's Fifth Avenue on March 17 under an identifying banner. 
 
 It's unclear how the group was chosen: whether OUT@NBCUniversal, which is described on its website as "the affinity group for LGBT & Straight Ally employees at NBCUniversal," was invited by the organizers or applied. Parade directors voted unanimously to include the group, the statement said. 
 
 Other gay groups can apply to march in future years, spokesman Bill O'Reilly said. 
 
 In the past, organizers said gays were free to march but only with other groups and not with banners identifying them as gay. Most marching units in the parade carry identifying banners. There are about 320 units in next year's parade, the committee said. 
 
 The committee said its "change of tone and expanded inclusiveness is a gesture of goodwill to the LGBT community in our continuing effort to keep the parade above politics." 
 
 The statement said the parade was "remaining loyal to church teachings," and O'Reilly said Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who is to be the parade's grand marshal next year, was "very supportive" of the change. 
 
 Dolan said last year he supported the participation of gay people. 
 
 "I know that there are thousands and thousands of gay people marching in this parade," he said. "And I'm glad they are." 
 
 Police Commissioner William Bratton marched last year with a contingent of uniformed officers. Gay activists held a news conference before the march to say officers should not participate in uniform. 
 
 Uniformed city workers, marching bands with bagpipes, traditional Irish dancers and politicians are traditional participants at the parade, which began in 1762 and can draw hundreds of thousands of participants and spectators. 
 
 The committee's statement welcoming OUT@NBCUniversal said, "Organizers have diligently worked to keep politics — of any kind — out of the parade in order to preserve it as a single and unified cultural event. Paradoxically, that ended up politicizing the parade."
– For the first time, New York City's St. Patrick's Day parade, the biggest in the world, will allow a gay group to participate with a banner of its own, the AP reports. Previously, gay groups had only been allowed to join in combination with other groups, and their identification had to be kept quiet. "Organizers have diligently worked to keep politics—of any kind—out of the parade in order to preserve it as a single and unified cultural event. Paradoxically, that ended up politicizing the parade," said parade planners. The group, OUT@NBCUniversal, consists of workers for the network broadcasting the event; NBC had suggested it could scrap coverage if the policy regarding gay participants wasn't changed, IrishCentral notes. The Guinness beer company had also pulled its backing from the parade; the brewery's reps have been meeting with parade organizers on the issue, an insider tells the side. "Once an iconic company like Guinness showed it was standing up, pretty much everyone else had to follow," the source notes. Additional gay groups will be welcomed in the future, a parade rep says. The event is "remaining loyal to church teachings," organizers add, with parade grand marshal Cardinal Timothy Dolan backing the shift.