Well it looks like our St. Patrick's Day coverage included more disreprencies than just last week's nomenclature kerfuffle. As Rob Blackwell, president of the Lesbian and Gay Band Association informed us via email yesterday, the Key West, Queens, and San Francisco St. Paddy's promenades are not, as we reported in the March 8 “March to the rainbow” article, the only shamrock shuffles in this country that welcome the participation of the LGBT community. In fact, writes Blackwell:
This year and every year, several member organizations from the Lesbian and Gay Band Association march in similar events across the United States.<!--break-->
For the past 27 years, the Mile High Freedom Band has been participating in the Denver St. Patrick's Day Parade. The band's participation is one of the highlights of their annual calendar and a long-standing tradition in Colorado.
In Kansas City, the Mid America Freedom Band participates in the annual Brookside St. Patrick's Day Parade. And while not included in their hometown parade, the Freedom Trail Band of Boston has marched on several past occasions in the Cambridge St. Patrick's Day Parade.
While we are proud of the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band and their participation in your local St. Patrick's Day Parade, your omission of these other important contributions lessens the important work our organization is doing to propagate music, visibility and pride in our national community.
So consider us corrected. In a good way – we're all for truthiness in the Guardian, but addendums that prove social justice is high-stepping along quicker than we thought really twirl our green bowties.