The Irish LGBT group Lavender and Green Alliance, which marched in the New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade in 2016 for the first time, participated in Sunday’s 2016 NYC Pride March.
Brendan Fay, founder of Lavender and Green Alliance said, “For the LGBT community June is usually a month of celebration. Instead after the June 12 anti-gay mass shooting at the Pulse Club in Orlando this has been weeks of vigils and memorials and community organizing. Orlando was on our hearts and minds. It was a day of solidarity, remembering, tenderness, pride, defiance and love."
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Marriage Equality legend Edie Windsor marched with Lavender and Green, as did Shane Cahill, vice consul at the Irish Consulate in New York who said he was “honored to march as we stand in solidarity with the victims of the tragic events in Orlando, celebrate the achievements towards equality in both Ireland and the U.S. over the past year and acknowledge that much still needs to be done.”
Lavender and Green celebrated its inclusion in this year’s St. Patrick’s Day parade and also remembered the 49 victims of the mass shooting in Orlando. Marchers carried posters designed by Cathy Hough with each of their faces and the word PRESENTE.
“As LGBT Irish people we need to be out and visible and telling our stories. We also need the solidarity and support of our families and communities. We have more to do in response to the anti LGBT prejudice and violence,” Fay said.
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