10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

MARCH 24, 1995

SPEAK OUT

Parade organizers: Once it was 'No Irish need apply'

by D. Killian

Organizers recast Boston's St Patrick's Day parade this year as a "protest march," so they could ban gays without violating a court order. In contrast, the Boston suburb of Cambridge organized a St. Patrick's Day parade based on unity, where everyone in the community was welcome. In addition to Irish Gays, Lesbians, and Bisexuals (GLIB), Dignity, and a gay veterans' group, the parade included the Irish group Macnas (bearing a twenty-five foot high float of St. Patrick), Catholic school groups, local labor unions, Brazilian step dancers, and an array of marching bands. Even St. Patrick himself turned up for the day, reading a conspicuous book on "How to Get Rid of Snakes."

Already the Cambridge St. Patrick's Day parade has become an historic event. Pat Fitzgibbons, one of the main organizers and a vocal advocate for gay inclusion, explains in the following interview why unity is so important to Cambridge and the nation— and how including lesbians and gays is a civil rights issue that all immigrants (and sons and daughters of immigrants) should marshal.

D. Killian: As an Irish-American, how do you feel about last year's parade [that the veterans canceled it, rather than allowing gays to participate]?

Pat Fitzgibbons: I'm very proud to be Irish and St. Patrick's Day is my day, but I was not very proud to be Irish last year. It really almost sickened me what happened. I wasn't so upset about the day being canceled-about everybody missing out on a good time. I was upset that seven and eight and nine year old kids were deprived of a day of being proud of being Irish-American. That's a shame. And the fact that this was done in the name of "Irishness" is abhorrent.

It wasn't. It was in the name of a small group. How did the Cambridge parade get started? Is it a response to South Boston? No, it's not. Boston has got a lot of press in the last couple of years [for trying to bar GLIB] but it's interesting to note that the beginnings of our parade were planned and begun before the [Massachusetts] Supreme Court ruling on South Boston. But when it came down to the fact-What are we going to do with groups that want to march in our parade? It just didn't make any sense to exclude anybody. It didn't seem fair.

Is there room in the Boston area for two parades? What makes Cambridge different?

Well, the South Boston parade isn't even a parade this year. I guess [to conform to court order] it's a "protest march"—although I don't really know the difference. There will still be bands and people marching down the street-so it sounds like a parade to me. But the size will be different. The makeup will be different. There's just no way around it— there are going to be gay groups in our parade and we welcome them.

What's the point of the Cambridge St. Pat's Day parade?

The point is that this can be done. The point is that there's room enough for everybody. When my ancestors came to this country from Ireland, they didn't ask them at Ellis Island, "Do you fit into one certain look of what an Irish immigrant is supposed to be?"

The Cambridge parade is based on unity. The parade celebrates what's happened in Ireland over the last year, the North and South finally sitting down. The problems in Ireland aren't going to be ironed out in a year or five years or ten-it's going to be a generational thing. And certainly the people on the parade committee don't think that by

having this one little parade that we're going to cure all the schisms that go on amongst the different classes in Cambridge. But it's a start. In Ireland, they're making a start. We're making a start too.

In terms of including gay groups, how does the Cambridge parade relate to events in Ireland?

First of all, it's important to know that in Ireland in several of their parades in the last couple of years the best floats, the best groups, have been won by gay groups. Maybe the other groups are missing out by not having gay groups in their parades. And maybe they're missing out on having really good floats and exhibitions. And it mirrors what's going on in Ireland because it's an attempt, it's a first step, to bring people together.

Has there been any negative response to Cambridge including lesbian and gay groups?

There are groups that have pulled out, politicians that have said they would not participate. But they're the ones that are going to lose out in the end.

What did you say to the people who didn't want to march, those opposed to gays participating?

I had someone call who said, "We're not going to be involved with this because of the gays." And I said, "Well, why?" They said, "It's a personal thing.” And I asked them, "Are they [gays] knocking on your door? Are they in your yard? Are they throwing rocks at your house? Hurting your children?” “Well, no, no." So, I don't understand it. I wasn't raised to think that way, to dislike or hate groups because of who or what they are.

Really, this [kind of thinking] goes back to the eighteen hundreds. White Americans used to think this way about African-Americans. You know, "There's something differ-

ent about them. There's something not right there. They're not as smart as we are..." But we now have the ability to say that that's just ridiculous. How could we have thought that way in the United States? But we did. And right now there's a big block of people, a very conservative element, who's saying [about gays] "There's something not right there." It takes time. And this parade is a starting point. It's a small thing I know, it's not effecting huge social change, but if you have enough of these small victories, then you have a big victory. That's how national improvements are made. That's how the mindset of the whole country can be changed.

What's the message then that Cambridge is sending out?

The message is: Don't forget. Don't forget what your parents and your grandparents had to put up with when it was "No Irish need apply." Is it the same now with "No gays need apply"?

And to the country as a whole?

The message to the country is: Look at us. Look at what we're doing. Look at how we're dealing with the [gay] groups-we're sitting down and just talking to them. [When you do that], you find out that your goals aren't that different.

The goals being?

To have a good time. To walk down the street together-happy to be out in the sun on a nice day and have a good time.

D. Killian lived in Ireland for six years, where she completed her post graduate work in Anglo-Irish literature at Trinity College in Dublin. Upon returning to the United States, she has begun compiling a book on the Irish experience in America, including that of lesbians and gays.

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