This Was the Gayest St. Patrick's Day Ever, Relatively Speaking
Anna Merlan
While St. Patrick's Day revelers were puking technicolor green on each other all up and down 5th Avenue, a mass beericide was narrowly averted at the Stonewall Inn, as part of what turned out to be a (relatively) gay-friendly St. Patrick's Day. The famed gay bar had planned a mass dumping of Guinness yesterday afternoon, to protest the company's decision to sponsor the official, no-gays-allowed St. Patrick's Day parade. Stacy Lentz, co-owner of the Stonewall, says the bar planned to dump between 10 and 15 cases of the beer.
But late Sunday, Guinness announced it would pull its sponsorship of the parade, writing: "Guinness has a strong history of supporting diversity and being an advocate for equality for all. As this has not come to pass, Guinness has withdrawn its participation. We will continue to work with community leaders to ensure that future parades have an inclusionary policy." The Stonewall canceled its planned beer-dumping and proceeded with its $10 Guinness and Jameson special, allowing everyone to dump beer down each other's gullets, where it belongs. (Heineken also pulled its support for the New York parade, as did Sam Adams in Boston.)
At the same time, both New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh were declining to march in their city's parades, citing the anti-gay policies. The Irish Queers, a group that's been protesting the parade for more than two decades, see a sea change underway.
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2014/03/st_patricks_day_stonewall_inn_guinness_parade_homophobia.php