Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2000 02:13:52 +0000
From: queerlib@earthlink.net
Subject: Irish Gay Web Site


For Immediate Release     Contacts: Brendan Fay
February  24, 2000                      (718)721-2780
                                                    Colleen Meenan, Esq.
                                                    (212)226-7334 

Irish Gay Group Posts Web Site

Provides Details On NYC's First Inclusive St. Patrick's Parade and 
The Sixth Annual O=EDche Aerach Celebration

In anticipation of St. Patrick's Day festivities  that are to begin as earl
y
as next week, the Lavender and Green Alliance, a 6-year-old  NY-based Irish
lesbian and gay cultural group, has posted its much anticipated web site: 
http://www.lavenderandgreen.com

Designed as an organizing and an educational tool for the Irish community,
the site includes information on the group's activities that have included
classes in the Irish language and set dance, presentations in Irish gay an d
lesbian history, holiday celebrations such as Samhain (Halloween) and
Nollaig (Christmas), and gay and lesbian rights.  

The site includes briefs on historical figures in  Irish gay history, 
current news items, members stories, and even a primer on "how to have a
happy St. Patrick's  Day."  The group has distributed hundreds of these
guides for the past two  years  outside St. Patrick's Cathedral.

The site comes at the heels of what will arguably be Lavender and Green's
greatest achievement to date  -- marching in the City's first inclusive St.
Patrick's Parade. Scheduled for March 5th in Sunnyside, Queens, the parade
committee  has secured notable endorsements and participants. Marching will
be the famous Bread and  Puppet Theatre of Vermont, numerous union and labor 
groups such as Local 1199 and the National Association  of  Letter Carriers
(Branch 294), Emerald Isle Immigration Center, representatives of the
Choctaw Nation, the Big Apple Corps Marching Band, Brehon Law Society and
the Irish Arts Center. Adding  excitement to the brouhaha are reports that
NY State Senate  candidate  Hillary Rodham Clinton will also march.

Lavender and Green has fought for inclusion in St. Patrick's parades in 3 of
the 5 boroughs -- Brooklyn, Bronx and Manhattan -- all to no avail. Just
last year the Bronx's  St. Patrick's  parade committee  reneged  on their
offer to allow Lavender and Green to march. Brendan Fay, the founder of
Lavender and Green, feels  things will be different this year. "For many
years we dreamed  about and struggled to join our community's most
significant  cultural celebration. Thanks to the work and commitment of many
community activists, within days  our dream will come true," said Fay. 

Another much anticipated event will be Lavender and Green's sixth annual
O=EDche Aerach dinner celebration on March 11. Begun as a sort of antidote to
the exclusion of lesbians and gay men from the Hibernian-run Manhattan
parade, the dinner attracts  over two  hundred-fifty attendees  each year.
The evening's festivities  include  traditional Irish music and dance, food
and drink, and the awarding of the Roger Casement and Eva Gore-Booth
Leadership Award to community advocates. This  year's recipients are Sister
Jeannine Gramick, SSND, an internationally respected advocate who's writings
and ministry address the needs of the lesbian and gay community and Jeff
Conway,  a tireless worker on behalf of children with HIV/AIDS.

Applications for marching in the parade or attending the dinner can be
obtained via the web site. It's worth a visit, if  not for participatory
purposes (you can even  endorse the march on-line), for a little bit  of
enlightenment.