i am ever-so-slightly scottish.
i am a tad french.
i am a sprinkling of dutch.
i am a pinch of austrian.
i am a smidge of welsh.
i am several pints of english.
i am a smorgasbord of german.
...but above all of my european-mutt heritage, i am irish. roman catholic irish, to boot. my mother's grandparents were fobs, arriving in america in the early 20th century. the newest members of brooklyn's irish community. they struggled here. they worked hard to make a better life for themselves. regardless, they were hated for who they were. despised for a part of themselves so innate.
i am irish. i am gay.
no gay irish groups will march in new york's st. patrick's day parade. correction: no gay irish groups can march in new york's st. patrick's day parade. a group once so denigrated for something they are without reason, now turns the blade on another.
john dunleavey, the man in charge of the parade, said, "if an israeli group wants to march in new york, do you allow neo-nazis into their parade? if african-americans are marching in harlem, do they have to let the ku klux klan into their parade?"
while mr. dunleavey is certainly entitled to his opinion, i have major issues with his analogy. not because he compares gays to nazis and klan members, but because the comparison is improperly applied.
nazis hate jews. klansmen hate blacks.
irish-american gays don't inherently hate irish-americans.
his analogy fails.
the inverse, however, seems to work:
if a group of irish-american gays wanted to have a st. patrick's day parade, do they allow mr. dunleavey to march?
no one in new york is asking mr. dunleavey to let hate into the parade.
the hate is already there.
posted by brett @ 2:28 PM
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