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Boston Mayor Martin Walsh
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Boston Mayor to boycott St Patricks Day parade unless gay community included
Mayor Martin J.Walsh hopes to broker a deal before the day arrives.
THE SOUTH BOSTON St Patrick’s Day parade looks set to be boycotted by its Mayor.
Mayor Martin J.Walsh has vowed to boycott the parade unless the gay community is allowed to march.
He told the Boston Herald “If the gay community is not allowed to march, I’m not marching in the parade.”
It’s 2014, it’s time for the parade to be an inclusive. And it’s something that I’m working with…We will see what happens in the next couple of weeks.
This comes after the Mayor of New York earlier this month revealed that he won’t be taking part in the New York parade because of the ban on participants from carrying signs for gay rights.
Democrat Bill de Blasio will be the first mayor in two decades not to take part in the New York St Patrick’s Day parade.
Meanwhile, here at home Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton is planning to avoid the St Parick’s Day parade in New York unless there is progress in relation to the inclusion of LGBT groups.
It’s believed that arrangements for St Patrick’s Day have not yet been finalised but that Taoiseach Enda Kenny will go to New York.
Read: New York City mayor refuses to take part in St Patrick’s Day parade>
Read: Burton will decline invite to New York parade over LGBT ban>
