Erin Go Bah.
Staten Island’s St. Patrick’s Parade is once again refusing to allow LGBTQ groups to march under their own banners — prompting prominent local pols to vow to boycott the event.
The parade, scheduled for March 6, has long been the city’s only St. Patrick’s march to ban LGBTQ participation.
“This was my fourth year attempting to apply,” said Carol Bullock, executive director of the Pride Center of Staten Island, Richmond County’s only LGBTQ community center, to The Post on Tuesday.
“LGBTQ+ groups can march in Dublin. They can march in Manhattan. I just don’t understand — why Staten Island?”
In 2020, the last time the parade was in-person, organizers even instituted a last-minute ban on Miss Staten Island after she came out as bisexual.
Richmond County District Attorney Michael McMahon, who co-hosts the traditional pre-parade breakfast, told The Post on Tuesday that he’ll be watching the parade from the sidelines, as he did in 2020.
“During the upcoming parade, I will proudly don my green attire; I will faithfully attend morning Mass at Blessed Sacrament Church; and I will joyfully join my co-hosts in welcoming all to our annual breakfast at Jody’s Club Forest, as I have done for decades,” McMahon said in a statement.
“Once again, however, I will dutifully watch and cheer on the parade from the sidelines.”
“I believe this misguided decision is not done out of malice, but from a misunderstanding about what both this day and the Pride Center stand for,” he said.
“I daresay that the true Irish Spirit of St. Patrick, the many Hibernians involved, the Parade Committee and the Pride Center certainly all share the same purpose: to ensure that no child of God, whether they identify as Irish, LGBTQ, or any other way, is oppressed, excluded, or otherwise treated unfairly because of who they are.”
Staten Island state Sen. Diane Savino said she also will boycott the parade, as she has before.
“It’s unfortunate that the organizers continue the ban. They’re wrong,” the Democrat said.
“You go to Ireland and there’s no issue with gay groups marching in the parade. Why not let the LGBT groups march?”
The 2022 application to participate in the Staten Island parade forbids the touting of so-called “sexual identification agendas” by marchers.
“This parade is not to be used for and will not allow political or sexual identification agendas to be promoted,” the application says in boldface type.
Bullock balked, “That’s not our purpose for marching.
“Our purpose is to show that we’re part of this community and we’re here to help people across the island,” she said.
“I’ve never wanted to disparage the parade, I want to be a part of it,” Bullock said.
Parade organizers did not respond to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said Tuesday he will still march in the parade — but encouraged the organizers to lift the ban.
“While I wish the parade organizers would reach a different decision, ultimately it is their decision, not the government’s,” the Republican leader said in a statement.
“There is still time before the event, and I encourage the parties to continue to meet in an effort to reach a resolution that will allow all Staten Islanders to celebrate together.”
Asked by The Post whether he would still walk in the parade if the LGBTQ groups are excluded, Fossella added, “That’s the plan.”
Local GOP Councilman Joe Borelli said that during the last in-person celebratory march in 2020, the outpouring of support for the LBGTQ community was out in full force — essentially turning the event into “a gay-pride parade.”
“Forest Avenue is lined with rainbow balloons and flags that rival Irish flags — that’s the irony,” said Borelli, who is not planning to march in this year’s event. “The parade committee have turned it into a gay-pride parade.”
Borelli, who in 2020 was kicked out of the parade for wearing a miniature rainbow flag, added, “If they didn’t look along the parade route and see hundreds of pride symbols and realize they’re turning this into the Pride Parade, they must have done a heavy pour in their cups that morning.”