An Irish LGBTQ group is marking 30 years of activism in the New York Pride March 2024. Lavender and Green Alliance, also known as Muintir Aerach na hÉireann, was founded by Co Kildare native Brendan Fay in 1994.
The organization seeks to create an environment where the lives and histories of Irish lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are shared and celebrated. The Alliance researches and records stories of LGBT people in the New York Irish community, hosts gay nights, and offers classes in Irish language, music and dance, Irish LGBT history.
The Alliance is also in cahoots with the St Pat’s For All Parade which claims to be New York’s most inclusive parade. On June 30, when Pride Month concludes with a huge march through the city, the Alliance will be front and center.
Brendan Fay group founder said: “We welcome all to join our Irish group in the Queer Liberation March. This year we step off where our modern LGBTQ civil rights movement began with the Stonewall Inn uprising in June 1969.
“At 11am we meet at 15 Christopher Street, formerly the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop. Movement pioneer Craig Rodwell(1940-1993) founded the nations first LGBTQ bookstore in 1967 and named it after the Irish writer who was sentenced to years of imprisonment and hard labor under British 19th century repressive anti gay laws.”
Brendan Fay co-founded the Alliance in 1994
(Image: Lavender & Green Alliance)
It comes as President Joe Biden courted LGBTQ+ voters with two New York events on Friday. Biden inaugurated a visitor center at the Stonewall National Monument with Elton John and later headlined a Pride Month fundraiser.
“You marked a turning point in civil rights in America,” Biden told the crowd at the Stonewall monument, a symbol of LGBTQ+ pride for decades. He continued: “We remain in a battle for the soul of America but I look around at the pride, hope and life that all of you, all of you, bring, and I know it’s a battle that we’re going to win.”
Earlier this week, Biden also pardoned potentially thousands of former US service members who had been convicted of violating a now-repealed military ban on consensual gay sex.
Fay went on: “We carry images of friends, lovers, and pioneers of the Irish LGBTQ community who paved the road for freedom and equality including Malachy McCourt who supported our efforts to be included in New York’s St Patrick’s Day Parade. It’s apt that our anniversary theme is Éirimid-Amach Le Chéile – we rise and come out together.”
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Maya Milton, Irish American Transgender organizer added: “People can march or roll with us for a short while if they prefer. We need to be visible and be ourselves.”
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