St. Pat’s parades proceed amid tension over gays

St. Pat’s parades proceed amid tension over gays

NEW YORK (AP) — A weekend of St. Patrick’s Day revelry and tensions over the exclusion of gays in some of the celebrations was culminating today in New York, where Guinness beer and the city’s new mayor planned to sit out the world’s largest parade celebrating Irish heritage. Mayor Bill de Blasio held the traditional St. Patrick’s Day breakfast at Gracie Mansion with the Irish prime minister, Enda Kenny, but planned to boycott the parade, which doesn’t allow expressions of gay identity. Boston’s new mayor, Martin Walsh, also opted out of that city’s parade Sunday after talks broke down that would have allowed a gay veterans group to march.