Gays, Giuliani, and Catholics
WILLIAM DONOHUE
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At precisely noon on June 25, 1995, in front of New
York's St. Patrick's Cathedral, a police officer yelled
into a bull horn: "Anyone who takes off his clothes
will be arrested." It was time for the Gay Pride Parade
to begin.
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New York is home to more parades than any city in
America. Throughout the spring, summer and fall, hardly
a Sunday goes by without some racial, ethnic or
religious group taking to the streets to celebrate its
heritage. All the parades make a positive cultural
statement, never seeking to disgrace or disparage the
heritage of some other group. In none of them do the
police find it necessary to threaten arrest for going
naked in public. Indeed, the mere suggestion of such a
threat would surely be seen as insulting, degrading and
bigoted. But when the cops tells gays to keep their
clothes on, no one seems upset, save those who want to
disrobe with impunity.
Bad as the 1995 parade was, it was no match for last
year's debacle ("Stonewall at 25," October 1994). On
June 26, 1994, scores of fully naked men and women
marched in an illegal parade yelling "F___ You" at
those on the steps of St. Patrick's Cathedral. They
masturbated in the street, pointed their middle fingers
at the Cathedral, did satanic dances and dressed as
cardinals, nuns, and priests. All of this was done in
full view of Police Commissioner William Bratton and
the New York City police force. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani
watched from above in a helicopter. No one was arrested
for anything.
A couple of weeks before the Gay Pride Parade, I
received a tip that the march was to begin at noon at
52nd Street and 5th Avenue, just one block north of St.
Patrick's Cathedral. The Cathedral has a Mass at noon
and another at one o'clock. Moreover, those attending
the 10:15 Mass that Cardinal O'Connor traditionally
gives would also be affected: as families exited the
Cathedral, they would be greeted by a throng of totally
wired gays and lesbians in various states of undress.
My response was to put the Mayor on warning without
first going public. On June 8, I wrote to Mayor
Giuliani expressing my concerns. I wanted the starting
point of the parade to begin at a point below St.
Patrick's; I suggested 42nd Street and 5th Avenue as a
point of departure, The parade was going to head south
anyway to Greenwich Village. The Catholic League never
once challenged the right of gays to march, rather, our
concern was wholly with the proposed starting point.
The First Amendment has always been conditioned by
time, place and manner, and given what occurred in
1994, it was hardly unreasonable to request that the
parade not proceed past St. Patrick's. I gave Mayor
Giuliani to June 16 before going public with my
charges.
The Mayor stiffed us-no one called. Before the deadline
occurred, someone leaked information about my letter to
the Washington Times. When questioned about the letter,
I confirmed its contents but refrained from commenting
any further. When Giuliani's office was contacted by
Liz Trotta of the Washington Times, his spokeswoman,
Christyne Lategano, replied that "the administration
will respond personally to Dr. Donohue. We look forward
to addressing his concerns with him directly and not
through the media." But no one called. After I went
public, the Mayor's top aid, Peter Powers, reiterated
what Lategano said. But no one called.
New York is properly known as a very liberal town. But
the New York City electorate is only one part of New
York public opinion: many who live in the New York
suburbs and the Northern New Jersey communities let
their voices be heard through talk radio, letters to
the editor, organized phone chains and the like. They
cannot be ignored as they constitute a formidable
public presence. Giuliani got their message and began
his walk from left to center, letting gay leaders know
that the 1995 Gay Pride Parade had better not be a
repeat performance of the 1994 march.
On the day of the parade, 3,000 people jammed St.
Patrick's for Cardinal O'Connor's Mass. As the faithful
walked into the Cathedral, they were given a pamphlet
by Dignity, a group of gays who claim to be Catholic
although they openly resist many Church teachings. The
handout blasted the Catholic League. Dignity was upset
by the League's statement that "To allow Catholic
bashing gays to begin a parade by St. Patrick's
Cathedral is tantamount to allowing the Klan to
assemble near a Harlem Baptist church or the Nazis to
start near a Jewish synagogue." The gay group also
carried anti-Catholic League signs during the parade.
Acting responsibly, Cardinal O'Connor preached malice
toward none and charity to all. He went out of his way
to say that "Most people whose sexual orientation
differs from the majority are good, decent people who
try to live responsible lives." He cautioned Catholics
not to respond to misbehavior that might take place
and, judging from what happened, not one person who
attended the Mass did anything to embarrass His
Eminence. But they surely were provoked.
When the parade began, St. Patrick's was sealed like a
war zone. No one could get near it as the police
barricaded the Cathedral and the sidewalk across the
street. All the usual suspects were there: drag queens,
cross-dressers on Rollerblades, the Butch/Femme
Society, the sado-macho brigade in black leather, Men
of Discipline and other lovely types. Commercialism was
most evident as about a third of the floats were
sponsored by various gay bars and clubs. Though there
were no signs indicating that the North American
Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) was there, the child
molesters were listed in the program.
There were men dressed as women and there were fairies
on stilts. Hundreds of men wore nothing but jock
straps, shaking their bodies to the beat of the blaring
rock music. Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis was
one of the grand marshals and pop singer Cyndi Lauper
danced and sang her hit "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun."
Strange looking people were everywhere and often it was
difficult to tell whether it was a man or a woman, and
in some cases it appeared that it was both. And yes,
some of the girls did bare their breasts (a few of them
apparently spray painted their chests), but in all
fairness it must be said that most of the girls managed
to keep their clothes on. The police carried yellow
blankets to cover the girls up but decided against
using them. Following tradition, no one was arrested.
There's a fat and ugly guy who shows up every year
dressed as the pope carrying a sign "My church organ is
bigger than yours." He was there again this year. There
was one car that passed by with a string of unrelated
four letter words and sexual terms on it. Some marchers
wore shirts with various vulgarities inscribed on them.
There were large pictures of men performing oral sex
and there were several examples of men simulating oral
sex live atop the floats. The latter exhibition led
Norm Siegel of the ACLU to declare "I love watching the
First Amendment in action," thus demonstrating how far
we've come in our understanding of free speech.
No Gay Pride Parade would be complete without a little
Catholic bashing. It should be noted that the place
where the march began, 52nd Street, is not a major
cross street, making it all the more conspicuous what
the intent was in starting there. If Catholic bashing
wasn't central to the parade, then surely the request
to start the march just south of the Cathedral would
have been granted. Indeed, when Janice Thom, the co-
chairman of the parade's sponsors, Heritage of Pride,
was asked to comment on my statement that her group had
deliberately targeted St. Patrick's, she responded
briskly, "That's an interesting idea."
The most flagrant anti-Catholicism came from Catholic
Ladies for Choice. In this group, there were gays and
lesbians dressed as nuns carrying coat hangers and
lesbians dressed as nuns carrying tambourines. Most
incredible was the gay man who wore a black bra and a
black jock strap with a huge set of rosary beads
wrapped around his otherwise naked body. There was also
someone dressed as the pope with a banner that read,
"The Catholic Church, a history of murder, lies,
censorship, oppression, and hypocrisy."
And what did Mayor Giuliani have to say about all this?
He called it a "very dignified parade." Police
Commissioner Bratton agreed, saying that the march was
"a very respectable parade, one that I think gays and
lesbians could feel quite proud of." If that is true,
then it is a very sad commentary on how gays and
lesbians see themselves. And it doesn't say a whole lot
about the way New York public officials see homosexuals
either. But this is the Gay Nineties, and until the
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" generation of straight
sympathizers wises up, Catholics can expect to face
this battle year after year.
This article was taken from the September 1995 issue of
"Crisis" magazine. To subscribe please write: Box 1006,
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Copyright (c) 1996 EWTN
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