CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For the first time, an LGBT community group was allowed to march openly in Charlotte’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Previous parade policies and practices had allowed LGBT groups but forbade rainbow flags; past LGBT groups also had the words “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender” or “LGBT” stripped out of their organization biographies.
The Charlotte Pride Band was the only LGBT group to march in the parade this year. They carried a rainbow flag with their organization’s banner. Emcees at the parade’s grandstand announced the group as an “LGBT and straight ally” organization.
Foundation board member Frank Hart had defended the ban on rainbow flags as late as Wednesday, telling qnotes that organizers considered the rainbow flag a “political” symbol.
“Regarding your flag, our parade rules, which we send out to all registered groups, clearly states that ‘No political or advocacy/cause banners are permitted in the parade’ and we felt that the flag advocated a political position,” Hart had said.
On Thursday, Hart refused to issue any further comment to qnotes and accused the newspaper of distortion.
“All of this is a bunch of stuff to get you publicity,” Hart said Thursday. “I’m not going to help you in that department anymore.”
Hart also told The Charlotte Observer that his event was being “smeared.”
Still, Hart and other parade organizers reversed course on Friday afternoon, telling The Charlotte Observer they would allow the Charlotte Pride Band to carry a rainbow flag.
Other LGBT groups, including the Charlotte Royals Rugby Football Club and Charlotte Pride, have marched in the event previously. Neither were permitted to carry rainbow flags and were never identified by emcees as LGBT organizations.
Anti-gay Knights funding still in question
The two dozen LGBT leaders had also asked the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, a parade sponsor, to stop supporting the event and for its CEO, Tom Murray, to withdraw as grand marshal, due to the events’ affiliation with he Knights of Columbus, a national Catholic fraternal organization that contributed $15.8 million to anti-LGBT marriage campaigns and other anti-LGBT causes from 2005-2012. A portion of proceeds from the parade and its related festival in Uptown Charlotte on Saturday benefit the national Catholic group.
Hart told The Charlotte Observer that members of the Knights of Columbus were volunteers at the event and were raising money to assist those with intellectual disabilities.
CRVA’s CEO did not withdraw and participated in the parade. But, CRVA told The Charlotte Observer on Friday that it hears “the concerns of members of the LGBT community and value their input. We also want to stay focused on our core mission in drawing visitors to experience the region.”
CRVA Communications Director Laura Hill had told qnotes that neither she nor her organization were aware of the Knights of Columbus’ anti-LGBT advocacy efforts. CRVA’s past sponsorship of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade had been nominal, about $1,000 last year. But, Hill said CRVA has changed the way it handles event sponsorship. They no longer give cash, she said, but support events through marketing and promotions.
Events like Charlotte’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration help promote the city as a destination, Hill said. CRVA supports a wide range of events throughout the year.
“We tend to look at a lot of different events that come to us for that kind of support,” Hill said. “Everything from Speed Street, [St. Patrick’s Day], Taste of Charlotte, you name it. We’re looking at events that promote the destination as a whole. … Our destination plan speaks to all that Charlotte has to offer, whether it’s a special event, an attraction or a restaurant. That’s what we’re marketing to at the end of the day.”
CRVA, Hill said, strives to support the entire community.
“We obviously support the LGBT community and realize it’s an avid travel audience, but we also want to support events in Charlotte that are tourism draws and St. Patrick’s Day is one of them,” she said.
One more step forward.
Pretty awesome that charlotte is ahead of
the curve more than New York or Boston!
Well Charlotte better not block anti-lgbt groups now or they will be sued. Way to open the flood gates Charlotte. It would be easier on everyone if no one was allowed to push their agenda on the public, especially parades, everyone is supposed to enjoy parades.
Much ado about nothing, and who really cares? If the LGBT community would stop trying to be so noticeable, so out and up front, and stop whining about how their “rights” are being violated, the rest of the community would probably be more accepting of them. Matter of fact, most people would simply ignore them and their sexual preferences.
Hint: No one cares if you’re gay, just as no one cares if you’re straight or bi. Stop making such a big deal out of it and just be yourselves. And please don’t come on with the excuse of “the straights won’t let us be ourselves.” That’s so over with. Grow up and join the community, instead of being such a dissenting part of it.
Translation: Get back in the closet!
No, he has a point. LGBT’s always have to be flashy in “in-your-face” with their sexuality. You don’t see heterosexuals running around half-naked in a parade and making out with their lover to prove how hetero they are. Heterosexuals would respect them a lot more if they just acted like normal citizens and carried along with their lives. I’m all for gay rights, but when they demand that everyone is accepting of overly perverted and flashiness, all while being intolerant of those who have traditional values, I have zero respect. You’ll further your cause much further and quicker by carrying respectful and decent dialog, arguments, and actions.
Ktown, that’s quite a bit of stereotyping and assumptions there. I was at the parade. I saw no band members making out. Stop day dreaming and fantasizing.
The hijacked rainbow flag doesn’t belong to the LGBT folks anymore than it belongs to Jessie Jackson. But honestly they don’t need a banner or flag for people to know they are the gay band.
Just for the record, gay and lesbian friends of Charlotte’s Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade have marched and volunteered since it’s inception without wearing their sexual orientation on their green tshirts. While there are some in the gay community that feel they need to tell the world, there are many who are secure enough not to need constant validation.
This is only about attention getting, not acceptance.
And when you think about it, how in the world can the LGBT community expect acceptance, or even an open discourse when the first words are WE ARE DIFFERENT! How about we are the same?
Demanding, threatening, pushing to have funding of a shoe string budget operation withdrawn tells me this isn’t about the St. Patrick’s Day Parade it is about an agenda.
In that regard we are different. Well, that and I’m playing Danny Boy and you’re doing a Village People medley.
Why can’t St. Patrick’s Day parades be limited to being about Irish heritage?
Weird people want attention, regardless how they get it.
Maybe because those with Irish heritage come with all different backrounds? Go figure.
Get a real life.
How utterly intolerant to attempt to oust the KofC through indirect pressure.
The object of tolerance is not to banish those who oppose your goals. In doing so you appear too weak to meet them in a contest of ideas. It is precisely this process of attempting to silence your opposition that causes many to NOT support GLBT advocacy organizations: just because I agree with your stance does not mean that I believe those who think differently have no right to express that view.