Donohue: Gay Pride Putting Up Blocks to Stop Me Marching
Thursday, March 20, 2014 06:41 PM
By: Bill Hoffmann
Organizers of New York's annual Gay Pride Parade have invited Bill Donohue to march this year — but the Catholic League president says the offer comes with impossible conditions which include attending a training session and wearing a shirt that promotes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender lifestyles.
"Quite frankly as a straight guy, I don't go to gay training sessions," Donohue said Thursday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV. "I'm pretty much of an untrainable guy when it comes these things."
Donohue also insisted he would never wear an LGBT t-shirt.
Story continues below video.
Donohue got the green light from NYC Pride, which organizes the parade, Thursday morning — a day after he revealed to Malzberg that he was challenging the group to let him march with a banner proclaiming, "Straight is Great!"
"Mr. Donohue and his group are free to participate in the 2014 March," said David Studinski, director of the NYC Pride event.
"His group's presence affirms the need for this year's Pride theme, 'We Have Won When We're One.' Straight is great — as long as there's no hate."
NYC Pride's Managing Director Chris Frederick told the Huffington Post: "Straight allies are great. We have thousands of straight people participating in the Pride March, including Catholic groups, who support LGBT youth, families and married couples."
Donohue has been at war with gay groups for claiming they are discriminated against by organizers of New York's St. Patrick's Day Parade because parade officials won't let them hold banners touting anything gay. Parade officials said gay banners are equal to political statements, which are not allowed.
Donohue said organizers of the Gay Pride Parade have rules about marching just as the St. Patrick's Day Parade does — and they should understand that.
He said on Thursday that he believes Gay Pride Parade organizers will throw too many conditions in his path, forcing him to not be able to march.
"Their initial response was okay, you have to come to a training session.... People have to wear LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] paraphernalia.... Now they are dancing. They are saying, well … we have our own rules and what not," Donohue said.
"I said, look I want to be clear, can I march with my banner 'Straight is Great?' My members will wear t-shirts 'Straight is Great' – I'm waiting for the final answer …
"Before I attend your training sessions, I just want to know.... They're not giving me an unequivocal answer."
Donohue believes NYC Pride is fearful that Catholic League supporters could overwhelm the Gay Pride Parade, which is held on the last weekend in June.
"What if instead of getting 100 people, what if I get 3,000 people? What if we begin to overwhelm their parade and veto their message. They know what's at stake," he said.
"They had a chance already to unequivocally answer me, and they're not doing that. They're dancing on the head of a lawyer's pin. We'll find out."
Donohue insisted the controversy surrounding the St. Patrick's Day Parade is not being promoted by all gays, but rather an elite group of high-powered liberals with an agenda.
"There's not enough gays that they lined up single file to pull off this nonsense, it's supported by the tony corporate boys and girls at Guinness … and the Georgetown people, Park Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin, Hollywood people," he said.
Guinness, along with fellow brewers Heineken and Samuel Adams, pulled out of sponsorship of the St. Patrick's Day Parade because of organizers' refusal to allow gays to march under their own banner. Donohue says he will boycott the beers.
"You know who I'm talking about, the elite. It's the cultural elite," said Donohue. "They think it's chic to be involved with gay rights causes.... [They] crossed the line on this one. All we want to do is have a St. Patrick's Day parade which honors St. Patrick's and you want to crash it with your own agenda.
"As I've said before, pro-NRA Catholics, pro-life Catholics, they are not welcome to march under their own banner. Ditto for gays."
Donohue said he has launched a petition drive on Catholicleague.org to promote his boycott of Guinness.
"The one I really want to send a message to is Guinness," he said.
"Because they're out of Dublin and as an American citizen and as an Irish citizen and as a Catholic, I take a particular affront to Guinness."
When Malzberg asked Donohue if he could march alongside him in the Gay Pride Parade, should he go ahead, the Catholic League leader said yes.
"Absolutely! A big wedding cake and everything else," Donohue laughed.
If he marches, Donohue would join thousands of other marchers and more than 50 floats as the parade makes its way down Fifth Avenue on the last weekend in June.
The parade, first held in 1970, is considered an "annual civil rights demonstration" and "celebration of our lives and our community," according to NYC Pride organizers.
GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis said Thursday: "As a fellow Irish New Yorker, I'm hoping Bill will march with me at NYC Pride. I look forward to the day when I can march openly with Bill in the NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade, and not be turned away because of who I am."
GLAAD has long blasted Donohue, charging him with "tireless opposition against legal recognition of LGBT people, loving LGBT families, the science of sexual orientation and HIV/AIDS education."
But Donohue, whose group defends the right of Catholics "to participate in American public life without defamation or discrimination" — said the controversy stems from the opposition to the church's teachings on marriage.
"That's what this is all about. It's about sexuality. Almost all of the attacks that come across my desk every day about Catholics have to do with sexuality," he said.
"It's either gay issues or abortion issues or contraception issues. They just can't leave us alone."
http://www.newsmax.com/newswidget/Donohue-gay-pride-blocks/2014/03/20/id/560846/?promo_code=1289E-1&utm_source=1289EThe_black_sphere&utm_medium=nmwidget&utm_campaign=widgetphase1
