The organisers of the St. Patrick’s Day parade seem to be coming under increasing pressure over their continued exclusion of gay and lesbian groups. This year, both Guinness and Heineken pulled out of the parade in New York.
At a time when mega corporations are often widely criticised for putting profit before principle, I think this is an example of the profit motive driving them in the right direction. Guinness makes a lot of its Irishness and so for it to bypass this huge annual jamboree would seem like an opportunity missed. However, given the attitude of the parade organisers, then to participate would have been to overlook its supporters in the gay and lesbian community, and they would be unlikely to forget the incident after St. Patrick’s Day. Anyway, whatever the rationale, I think Guinness and Heineken have done the right thing.
This situation has parallels with the pasta wars of last year when Barilla scored a needless own goal with comments by their Chairman. Their rival Bertolli (owned by Unilever) immediately capitalised by posting a pro-gay ad in response (“Love and pasta for all!”) and the Barilla Chairman was left to think about the consequences of giving vent to his somewhat al dente personal opinions on a public forum.
Meanwhile, hopefully the Ancient Order of Hibernians will have a rethink about their ancient policy of exclusion. Not only does it seem rude to deliberately disallow a fairly sizable chunk of the NYC community from participating in their own parade, but it would seem to be at odds with Pope Francis’ thoughts on the subject. Pope Francis says that gay people should integrated into society, not marginalised, and also comments that it is for God to do the judging, not him. Hopefully, over a pint or two, the AO of H will reconsider their policy for next year. The parade is sure to be better for it!
Disclosure: Long DGE, ULVR and HEIO