Hillary in Parade Hot Water
Source: UPI
Published: 3/06/01
NEW YORK, March 6 (UPI) -- New York's newest senator landed in the middle
of the St. Patrick's Day Parade gay and lesbian controversy.
New York City Councilwoman Christine Quinn, a lesbian, and New York State
Sen. Tom Duane, who is gay, both Democrats from Manhattan, said that Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton's office told them she is likely to march in the New
York City St. Patrick's Day parade, an event almost all Democratic
politicians from New York shun because the parade organizers ban gay and
lesbian groups.
By the end of the day, Clinton was backing away from marching and said
her
schedule has not been nailed down.
Quinn, who does not want Clinton to march, took that as a positive sign
that she may not participate in the parade.
"That she is still up in the air is very positive," she said.
The annual battle to have gay and lesbian groups included in the New
York
City's St. Patrick's Day parade has become as much a part of the holiday as
corned beef. Every year gay groups seek to march and are rejected. Courts
have upheld organizers.
Last year, Clinton, then a candidate for U.S. Senate in New York, was
one
of the few Democrats marching in the parade.
The parade organizers, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a private Catholic
fraternal group, has banned the lesbian and gay groups for the past ten
years on grounds that homosexuality is not accepted by the Roman Catholic
Church.
Last year, homosexual groups were one of Clinton's strongest supporters
in
her bid for the Senate and were inclined to blame Clinton's staff for not
briefing her on the parade history and were willing write off her parade
participation "because she was new to New York."
The gay and lesbian groups expected Clinton to boycott this year's parade.
Clinton said last year that she had agreed to march in the parade several
months in advance when she met with an Irish-American organization. She said
she wanted to support the Irish peace process.
To appease gay and lesbian groups last year, Clinton hastily arranged
to
march in the Queens Parade, which does allow gay and lesbian groups.
However, according to Quinn, Clinton cannot make the Queen's parade this
year.
"There are a lot of issues made of the pride agenda but the parade
is a
symbolic issue," Tim Sweeney, head of the 14,000-member Empire Pride
Agenda,
a New York gay and lesbian organization, told United Press International
last year.
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