GLAAD President and CEO, Sarah Kate Ellis has written a letter to the editor of the New York Daily News, recalling her participation in the New York St . Patrick's Day Parade, and noting how excluding LGBT people hurts families like hers.
Sarah Kate writes:
I remember walking down Fifth Ave. with my mom in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. We were two proud Irish-Catholic women from Staten Island celebrating our heritage and the Irish spirit of love and family. As a native New Yorker, I loved being part of one of New York City’s biggest traditions with my mom. Since that day, I married my wife Kristen, had two children and was named president and CEO of a national non-profit organization. My mom is proud of me, loves her grandchildren dearly, and, like any good Irish woman, she doesn’t like it when people try to hurt our family. Once again this year, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade organizers and Timothy Cardinal Dolan, who donates diocese funds to the parade, are hurting my mom, my children and my wife. The parade’s ban on gay and lesbian people marching openly forces me to look my 5-year-old twins in the eye and tell them that the parade organizers doesn’t think our family is good enough to march. It should no longer be defined by such discrimination.