QUEENS, New York (LifeSiteNews) — Pro-life friends of Ireland in America came out in force and were warmly greeted by cheering crowds this past weekend at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the heavily Irish-American New York City borough of Bayside, Queens.
Local residents and visitors, gathering on Saturday, April 6, for the annual Bayside St. Patrick’s Day Parade, loudly cheered and applauded for these pro-lifers carrying their banner for Irish Pro-Life USA. The parade stepped off at 1:00 PM after a Mass to mark the occasion at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bayside.
The support was timely. Pro-life groups displaying their own banners have been excluded and shunned by organizers of a separate parade, the world-famous New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade up Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.
The Fifth Avenue parade, honoring the patron saint of both Ireland and the Catholic archdiocese of New York, has previously avoided the inclusion of political and advocacy groups marching with their own banners. But it has made one well-known exception in recent years. Since 2015 the parade has permitted the group Out@NBCUniversal, the self-proclaimed “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & Straight Ally Employee Alliance” at broadcaster NBC, to march with its banner. NBC clearly has leverage since it broadcasts the annual Fifth Avenue parade.
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The welcome for pro-lifers in Bayside, Queens, did not go unnoticed. Over two dozen supporters marched behind the Irish Pro-Life USA banner in Bayside.
“This was an amazing outpouring of support in the lovely neighborhood of Bayside, Queens, and at the same a strong witness for the sacredness and dignity of human life in the womb,” Irish Pro-Life USA said in a statement.
“We thank the organizers of the parade, local residents and visitors for their warm welcome and support for the pro-life message in Ireland and America, and across the globe.”
Irish Pro-Life USA is a US-based grassroots movement of pro-life activists and friends of Ireland in America, promoting the universal protection and the unique dignity of all human life. The group has lobbied parade organizers for years and filed to march with its own banner in the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. But like other pro-life organizations seeking a place in the parade, it has been rebuffed and never permitted to march.
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