Monday, March 17, 2014

Guinness pulls out of St. Patrick's Day parade - Carolyn Villalobos Period 4

St. Patrick's Day parades are supposed to be fun for everyone, young, old, whatever. But unfortunately, even in this day and age, some people aren't allowed to participate openly. And by some people, I mean those of the LGBT community. Two parades specifically have been in the news for this. Both the New York and Boston parades have policies that ban the display of sexual orientation, which means that marchers are not allowed to wear things or hold signs that identify them as part of the LGBT community. Late Sunday, Guinness announced that it would no longer be sponsoring the New York parade, "we were hopeful that the policy of exclusion would be reversed for this year's parade, as this has not come to pass, Guinness has withdrawn its participation." The announcement came days after Heineken announced it's withdrawal from the parade, and Sam Adams, another brand, did the same with the Boston parade.
I think it's awesome that major companies are giving support for the LGBT community and are showing that, as the president of GLAAD said, "discrimination should never be celebrated." The speaker of the New York City Council also congratulated the three companies on their decision to "take a stand on behalf of the LGBT community who should be able to march openly and proudly in the St. Patrick's Day Parade."

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