Staten Island St. Patrick’s Day Parade to include LGBTQ+ groups for first time

The Richmond County St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee, which runs the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade on Staten Island in New York City, will for the first time ever welcome LGBTQ+ groups to join in March.

The change comes following years of controversy surrounding the exclusion of LGBTQ+ groups from the annual parade.

“The Richmond County St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee wishes to announce that the Staten Island Pride Center has been invited to march, under their own banner, in the 2025 Saint Patrick’s Day Parade," the Committee said in a written statement exclusively reported by the Staten Island Advance on Tuesday, November 12.

"This invitation has been extended by new leadership of the parade committee, installed on October 30, 2024.

“The parade committee is entrusted with ensuring the focus of the parade remains upon Saint Patrick, the history, traditions, culture, and faith of the Irish people.

"In this endeavor, the leadership of The Pride Center has assured the parade committee that they are ready to provide support to the parade in fulfilling this obligation."

Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Edward Patterson, the new head of the Parade Committee, further said: "The Pride Center has long asserted that they merely wish to be treated like any other marching contingent in the parade.”

He added: “Putting an end to the controversy is good for the parade and good for the community of Staten Island.”

Carol Bullock, the Executive Director of The Pride Center of Staten Island which has been leading the fight for inclusion in the parade, said in a statement on Tuesday: “We are truly honored to be invited to march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

“This event is a time-honored tradition that brings people together from all walks of life to celebrate Irish culture, and we are excited to be part of this vibrant community celebration.”

The Staten Island St. Patrick's Day parade has drawn criticism in recent years for not permitting LGBTQ+ groups to march, even after the nearby New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade famously did an about-face on the same issue in 2015.

In 2018, Larry Cummings, then-President of the Staten Island St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee, told IrishCentral's sister publication Irish Voice: “Our parade is for Irish heritage and culture. It is not a political or sexual identification parade."

Cummings said at the time that the parade committee had taken a decision to ban gay marching groups several years prior after receiving an application from the Pride Center.

“The committee voted so that’s that. Those are the rules,” Cummings said in 2018. “Gays can march, but not under a banner.”

As the exclusion continued, a 'Rainbow Run' 5K event was organized and hosted for a number of years on the morning of the parade "in support of LGBTQ+ groups who are banned from marching in the Staten Island St. Patrick’s Day Parade."

Today @RainbowRunSI showed their support for the @PrideCenterSI after they were banned from the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Staten Island.

We ran in Rainbow formation in The Forest Ave Mile before the parade to celebrate our Irish and #SILGBTQ Pride!#StatenIrelandPride pic.twitter.com/O5Zb77qSWl

— RainbowRunSI (@RainbowRunSI) March 3, 2019

The controversy persisted, with the Pride Center of Staten Island leading the charge in seeking LGBTQ+ inclusion in the parade each year. Their efforts were bolstered by the Gay Officers Action League as well as local politicians.

Mayors Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams have both boycotted the Staten Island St. Patrick's Day Parade due to the exclusion of LGBTQ+ groups, while former Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the Pride Center should be permitted to march in the parade. 

In 2023, Michael E. McMahon, the Richmond County District Attorney, penned an open letter explaining why organizers were "standing down" the traditional pre-parade breakfast "in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ groups excluded by the parade’s organizers."

This year, however, a new, inclusive St. Patrick's Day parade was organized by the Forest Avenue Business Improvement District (BID), a subset of the Staten Island Business Outreach Center (SIBOC). It stepped off on March 17, separate from the parade organized by the Richmond County St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee, which this year was hosted on March 5. 

On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who has previously participated in the Rainbow Run events, welcomed the news that LGBTQ+ groups will be permitted to march in next year's parade.

I also want to thank the Pride Center of Staten Island and the Lavender and Green Alliance for their partnership and long advocacy for inclusion.https://t.co/ieHV11PHEU

— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) November 12, 2024