Catholic League Quits New York City’s St. Patrick Parade After Gay Decision
A conservative Roman Catholic group severed its 20-year ties with the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Thursday, a week after event organizers took the unprecedented step of allowing a gay group to march under its own banner in the procession.
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights said it pulled out of the March 2015 event because the parade committee denied an anti-abortion group from marching with banners while bending its rules to allow the gay group to do so, League President Bill Donohue said in a statement.
“For the past two decades I have been the parade’s most vocal defender of its rules,” Donohue said. “Repeatedly, I have said that gays have no more been banned from marching than pro-life Catholics have.”
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