Pride Center of Staten Island Finally Allowed in St. Patrick’s Day Parade

November 15, 2024
HANK ORSO

Pride Center of Staten Island Finally Allowed in St. Patrick's Day Parade

The endless doomscrolling of bad news that only seems to get worse is an unfortunately ubiquitous given. So how about some good news! Wouldn't that be queer?

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As reported in The Advocate, the Pride Center of Staten Island will finally be allowed to fully march under its own banner in next year's Staten Island St. Patrick's Day Parade. This ends a decades-long ban, and is apparently the last parade to end such a ban and embrace inclusivity.

The change comes after a change in leadership in the Richmond County St. Patrick's Day Committee. They said in a recent statement:

“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 ... This invitation has been extended by new leadership of the parade committee, installed on Oct. 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."

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While area parade organizers have dropped similar bans, such as Manhatten's parade in 2014, Staten Island seemed to have been the last staunch holdout to inclusion. This all seemed to have been the tireless work of one bigot, the ironically named Larry Cummings, who argued that their parade "is not a political or sexual identification parade" and that "gays can march, but not under a banner."

It was reported in 2018 on The Irish Central website that Cummings was basically a roadblock to the group's acceptance onto the parade route. "(PCSI organizers Carol) Bullock and (Brendan) Fay met with Cummings at the Blessed Sacrament Church, where parade applications were being accepted by Cummings. When they identified themselves and their group they were denied the chance to file a formal application. “We didn’t even get a chance to apply or to talk to the committee members,” (Bullock) told the Irish Voice. “We asked if we could speak to them to explain our position and why we would like to march, and we were told no.”

Cummings was replaced in his leadership position and with the installation of new committee leadership this past October, the invitation to PCSI was extended and accepted.