NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, March 7, 2001

New York City councilwoman Christine Quinn, a lesbian, and New York State senator 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," Quinn said.

The annual battle to have gay and lesbian groups included in 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 the U.S. Senate from 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 10 years on grounds that homosexuality is not accepted by the Roman Catholic Church.

Last year, homosexual groups were one of Clinton's strongest supporting groups in her bid for the Senate. They were inclined to blame Clinton's staff for not briefing her on the parade's history and were willing to 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.

Copyright 2001 by United Press International.

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