NEW YORK Mayor Bill de Blasio led off hundreds of participants at a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender-friendly St Patrick’s Day parade on Sunday.

The St Pat’s for All parade stepped off in the borough of Queens in heavy snowfall. It was held as an alternative to the city’s centuries-old St Patrick’s Day Parade in Manhattan, which for years has excluded gay groups and this year is scheduled for March 17.

“You are a hardy troupe,” Mr De Blasio, sporting a lavender shirt and green tie, told the people gathering for the parade.

“You are here to celebrate no matter what. That is what pride is all about — pride in the fact that in New York City you can be whoever you are.”

Mr De Blasio had refused to march in last year’s Manhattan parade because it wasn’t fully inclusive and eventually brewer Guinness dropped its sponsorship of the event.

Organisers said last year, though, that they would welcome one gay contingent under its own banner this year.

The mayor said on Sunday: “A society for everyone is a society where everyone is respected, where everyone is embraced, where everyone has a say at the table.”

In the past, gay people were free to march in the parade but not with banners saying they were LGBT. Most other marching units in the parade carry identifying banners.

LGBT activists said the main parade organiser, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, had been under increasing pressure to allow diversity.
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