Brendan Fay is the activist and filmmaker who gave LGBT Irish immigrants in New York 'a place to belong'

An activist and filmmaker who founded St Pat’s For All Parade nearly 25 years ago said the revolutionary event has given LGBTQI+ Irish immigrants in New York a “place to belong”. Brendan Fay founded St Pat’s For All, the first Irish parade to welcome members of the LGBTQI+ community to march openly in the streets of New York, in 2000.

The 65-year-old, who moved to the US from Drogheda in the 1980s, created St Pat’s For All after years of being “arrested and excluded” from New York’s St Patrick’s Day Parade on Fifth Avenue, and others across the city.

St Pat’s For All takes its theme from The 1916 Proclamation – “cherishing all the children of the nation equally” – and counts Hillary Clinton and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez among its past attendees. Human rights advisor to President Obama, James Cullen, and Pulitzer Prize winner, Paul Muldoon, are among its Grand Marshals.

“I call 1999 the year of the three arrests,” Brendan told IrishStar.com. “I was trying to get Lavender and Green Alliance, the Irish LGBT group I founded a few years previous, into the parade but it was met with resistance.

Brendan and a fellow protestor being arrested on St Patrick’s Day 1993

“I came home to my husband, Tom, one night and said, ‘it’s time’. I was going to apply for a parade permit and create a parade dedicated to the spirit of hospitality and welcome for all. I knew nothing about organizing parades but I knew how much of an important part they [parades] were to the Irish immigrant experience in New York.

“It’s literally like trying to find your place in the Irish community in New York, which was harder for lesbian and gay people in the 80s and 90s. The Parade was a response to the Irish people’s own experience of discrimination in the city but it got stuck there. Irish LGBT people had a right to celebrate St Patrick’s Day just like every other group.

“St Pat’s For All felt like such a huge breakthrough. The annual Pride parade is a huge moment for LGBTQI+ people – it’s often the first time they experience community, or come out. Every community had its moment on Fifth Avenue and St Patrick’s Day is the most Irish of moments. That’s where LGBT Irish immigrants belong – among our own.”

Brendan receiving the President’s Distinguished Service Award from Michael D Higgins

Brendan, the third child of seven, was influenced from a young age by the Sisters of Mercy, a Catholic women religious congregation. He joined the Irish Christian Brothers aged 14 and was a postulant for four years.

After being denied admission to the novitiate, he worked as a waiter and then a carer for children with disabilities in Dublin. He soon became aware of an emerging gay scene in the Irish capital which he nervously explored.

Fay experienced much pain, conflict, and silence during these years, though, even seeking a cure from spiritual healers and counsellors that offered conversion therapy. There was little or no acceptance of gayness/queerness during his adolescence as The Irish legislature did not abrogate the criminalization of homosexuality until July 1993.

Fay jetted to Queens, New York, where he settled, and after completing a theology master’s degree at St John’s University, taught for five years in New York Catholic high schools. He led Peace and Justice groups, spearheaded AIDS awareness programs, and taught the history of Irish immigration to the US in community colleges.

Due to his activist work and participation with the Irish Lesbian & Gay Organization (ILGO), Fay was fired from his teaching position. He turned his hand to leading an AIDS food distribution program at a local community church.

Brendan resigned from St Pat’s For All Parade in November 2021

“I addressed New York City Pride rally and marched openly gay and Catholic alongside New York City Mayor David Dinkins to cheers as well as boos in 1991 and lost the job I loved so much because of it. That changed everything.

“It was a criminal offence to be gay when I was growing up in Ireland. I tried to get people to cure me of being gay. The only thing I was cured of was self-hate, prejudice, and internalized homophobia.

“St Pat’s For All was met with so much abuse. People said it wouldn’t last a year and Irish groups didn’t want to be part of it. We had no money but plenty of spirit and good heart and I was moved by the generosity of the people in Woodside and Sunnyside. I soon got a call from The White House saying Hillary Clinton wanted to march with us.

“Suddenly our little neighbourhood parade was making headlines around the world with photos of Hillary Clinton marching up Skillman Avenue. We have so much more work to do to ensure our cultural celebrations are inclusive but we’re in a great moment in human history and Irish history for that to happen.”

In 2016, Lavender and Green Alliance was warmly welcomed to join New York City’s St Patrick’s Day Parade after years of struggle. In November 2021, after 22 years of organizing, Brendan resigned from St Pat’s For All.

“Ultimately, the pain of exclusion which led to the parade’s creation was resolved in 2016,” Brendan said. ” I needed to step out the way to allow new people to bring their own energy to the movement.

“I waned to focus on film projects and history research. I consulted for Miramax on the 2005 film, The Magdalene Laundries and directed Remembering Mychal about Fr. Mychal Judge, the FDNY Franciscan chaplain killed on 9/11.

“The city apologized for taking so long to include us in the parade but we got there in the end and that’s what’s matters,” Brendan said. “After years of protests and arrests, we stepped onto Fifth Avenue with our banner.”

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