Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images
The city’s main St. Patrick’s Day parade, which heads down Fifth Avenue every year, doesn’t allow gay participants or groups to publicly identify as such while they march, a policy that has led to a mass political exodus. Following the lead of Mayor Bill de Blasio, the City Council as a whole has said it won’t participate. Individual members may march, but “there will be no official City Council presence at the parade, no banner, and no Sergeant-at-Arms present,” Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito’s office announced.
