For the first time in the 114-year history of Boston's St. Patrick's Day parade, gay rights activists marched openly on Sunday under rainbow banners in the city's annual celebration of its Irish heritage, after organizers lifted a longtime ban.
Two groups, Boston Pride and OutVets, were among dozens of contingents taking part in the parade through the center of South Boston, an Irish-American bastion near downtown, bringing to end two decades of explicit exclusion.
Organizers had long justified the ban because homosexuality conflicted with Roman Catholic doctrine but cthey ame under intense pressure to change their position, which ran counter to the liberal attitudes that prevail in Massachusetts. The state was the first in the United States to legalize same-sex marriage in 2004.
The Allied War Veterans Council of South Boston, which organizes the event, shortened the parade route by about half this year, after the city's near-record snowfall in recent weeks made it difficult to clear roads.
The lifting of the ban was not without controversy. The Massachusetts contingent of Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men's organization, pulled out of the parade on Friday, calling the event "politicized and divisive."
Mayor Martin Walsh, who last year skipped the parade because of its exclusion of gay groups, was marching on Sunday, becoming the first mayor to do so in 20 years.
"With this year's parade, Boston is putting years of controversy behind us," Walsh said in a statement.
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