St. Patrick's Day Without Guinness Is Like . . .

Today:
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Guinness pulls out of St. Patrick's Day parade

Guinness is the latest beer giant to withdraw its support for a St. Patrick's Day parade because lesbian and gay groups aren't allowed to march openly.

The beer maker late Sunday announced its decision to drop its sponsorship of Monday's parade in New York City.

Over the weekend, gay rights icon Stonewall Inn had threatened to stop selling Guinness beer if the company continued to sponsor the parade. And LGBT advocacy group GLAAD had planned an anti-Guinness event on Monday.

"We were hopeful that the policy of exclusion would be reversed for this year's parade," Guinness said in a statement. "As this has not come to pass, Guinness has withdrawn its participation."

Parade organizers could not be reached for comment.

The announcement by Guinness comes days after rival Heineken also pulled out of the New York City parade, and Sam Adams announced that it would no longer sponsor the Boston parade for the same reason.
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These brewers aren't stupid. They know that gays and their supporters are more likely consumers of high end beers than the bigots represented by these parade organizers. As with New York, it only took one major gay night club in Boston to announce a boycott and the brewers quickly released statements that they had only ever intended to sponsor the parades if gay organizations were welcome.

There was a lot of controversy about the New York and Boston parades this year, with numerous Irish public figures also pulling out because of the anti-gay thing.

So, do these guys have to become homoqueers and have an orgy float in an unrelated parade before they're not mean, anti-gay "bigots", or do they have to also have a sex change?

Don't be an idiot, Poodle. Gay Irish-Americans would like to march in a parade. They aren't having sex in public or demanding that prudes try something other than the missionary position.

The parades have been controversial for a while now. Support for gay rights, at least in the civilized parts of the U.S., has, however, reached a bit of a tipping point where explicitly anti-gay policies by politicians and companies are big losers. I'd also guess that the NYC mayor for the first time refusing to participate in the parade helped some of the corporate sponsors along to the right conclusion.

So Bloomberg marched? I'm surprised by that. the last time a Boston mayor marched was Ray Flynn in 1992. That said, I do give Marty Walsh props for being the first Irish mayor to not march.

The other interesting thing in Boston is the St. Patrick's Day breakfast, a political roast traditionally hosted by the state senator from Southie. Though often considered part of the same program as the parade, it diverged long ago on the gay inclusion front. and for the past two years, the hosting senator wasn't even Irish. That was slightly controversial in 2012, went unremarked in 2013. It's all a question of whether people understand American culture as a melange or as a series of seperate sides, each in its own dish. The first group has no problem with a St. Paddy's day breakfast hosted by a Latina. But the second group says "only if you're Irish and the right kind of Irish." Fuck the parades in my opinion. I'm going to enjoy some Guinness with my corned beef and cabbage this evening.

He's probably holding a vigil for Phelps as well.

I wasn't at all sure and had to double check, but yeah, he did. Not only that, he's also criticized de Blasio for not marching.

heh -heh...he said "pulling out!"

My Saint day was on March 5th. :cornwall:

Your pettiness has always been a great source of amusement for me, little man.

Forgetting about Apostle's bigotry, I always find it amusing how many American's turn into plastic paddy's, plastic jocks, plastic Germans when it suits them for a photo opp, a nice piece of traditional dress, or a party.

Rest of the year round its America - fuck yea!

What's next for them in the city? Bat Day at the Stadium?

Heineken is garbage. Just a heads up.

Mine is on April 20th.

It's European Budweiser. But it doesn't appeal to the anti-gay crowd, because fuck Europe! As for Sam and Guinness, they are decidedly not shit. At any rate, the point was about who is interested in buying more expensive beer and who isn't.

That's a pretty broad brush there. I don't drink Guinness so I won't commment on it, and while Sam is good I'd rather go with a smaller microbrewery. 10 Penny Ale comes to mind.

Sure. But connoisseurs aren't there target. We're talking about large breweries with significant market presence. Boston Beer Co. (Sam Adams) likes to pretend that it is a micro-brewer, but it's actually the largest American brewer, now that Miller-Coors is owned by Molson, and Budweiser is owned by AmBev. Even measured by volume, Sam Adams does not meet the definition of micro-brwery, not by a long shot. My point doesn't regard you or me or any individual beer drinker. Larger companies going after large volume sales faced with the alternative of alienating one group or another, will side with the group more likely to buy their product. The guys running these parades and their supporters, for the most part, do not drink Heineken, Guinness, or Sam Adams. and they've never heard of 10 Penny.

Saint Hitler?

It should be noted that the LGBT protests in NY have been going on since 1995. Maybe for the 20th anniversary, under the new mayor, dem Irish will finally grow up.

Considering that the Ancient Order of the Hibernians excludes women and that their list of officers places the Chaplain and Assistant Chaplain ahead of the President, I doubt it. If you characterized the people running the parade as the Irish-American branch of Opus Dei you wouldn't be wrong by much.

Heineken tasts like sour wood to me.

St Patricks Day. The only day of the year you get to overtly racist by sticking on a ginger beard, a big top hat and see lots of leprechaun references.

Now try that shit on MLK day by getting the blackface out...

I'm just going to play devil's advocate here and throw this out there. What if I wanted to march in a parade with a group of folks who carried banners saying "I'M HETEROSEXUAL AND LIKE TO SLEEP WITH THE OPPOSITE SEX!" or "I <3 VAGINAS!!", or - for a St. Patty's Day parade, "I COME FROM A FAMILY OF ULSTER PROTESTANTS!"

...don't you think I would be banned from the parade? Or just beat down?

I can't say for sure that you'd be banned from the parade from Boston, though the bit about Ulster might be a step too far. I get what you're going for with this, but I think the issue basically is that an overwhelming majority is known to be hetero. We don't need to advocate for ourselves because society already works to support us. The gays can march, so long as nobody knows they are gay. That is somewhat different from my ability to march, where I need not pretend I'm somebody I'm not. So they want to say "hey, stand-up and look at me, I'm here, I always have been, and always will be." That's a message I don't need to present, because nobody questions my status.

Why are the homos so intent on invading St. Patricks Day parades? They're not wanted. If they want to march on St. Patrick's Day, they can organize and stage their own parade, instead of trying to inject themselves into a situation where they're not wanted. I wouldn't give two shits if the mayor, governor or any other whore local politician declined to march. Fuck em.

It's just like the homos forced invasion of the Boy Scouts. Indoctrination of America's youth, mainstreaming of the sexual deviancy of 2%. Pathetic.

That's interesting Flashlight. The homos do have their own parade. It's called Pride and at least in Boston, there are several Irish gay groups that march. Nobody is telling them they have to hid their Irishness if they wish to participate.

Yeah, and?

Sexual behavior and ethnic/racial background are not the same.

Science appears to disagree.