The Washington DC St. Patrick’s Day Parade committee has accepted an application from the The DC Center for the LGBT community to march in this year’s parade.
It will be the first-ever LGBT contingent to march in the parade, the Washington Blade reports. Washington now joins New York and Boston in allowing gay groups for the first time.
“We just registered and they accepted our registration,” said David Mariner, the D.C. Center’s executive director.
He said the Center has created a Facebook page for the LGBT parade contingent and is urging interested members of the LGBT community, especially those of Irish descent, to join the contingent.
The DC St. Patrick’s Day Parade committee does not have a policy to exclude an openly LGBT contingent from marching in the parade – unlike the former policies of the parade committees in New York and Boston.
“We are a non-profit,” said Colleen Cohan, vice chair of the St. Patrick’s Parade Committee of Washington, D.C. in an interview with the Washington Blade last year. “So we don’t exclude any group that wants to participate in the parade.”
The committee does ban “political campaigning” or commercial advertising, she said, but parade marchers are allowed to carry signs displaying an organization’s name.
This year’s parade will take place on Sunday, March 15, from 12-3 pm and will travel along Constitution Avenue, N.W., between 7th Street and 17th Street.
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