‘All the World Is Bright and Gay’: St. Pat’s for All Founder Reminisces

Over 25 years ago, gay Catholic Brendan Fay established the St. Pat’s for All Parade to give all LGBTQ+ people of Irish heritage “a place to belong.”

Fay, an activist and filmmaker, launched St. Pat’s for All in New York City in 2000 as the first Irish parade to welcome openly LGBTQ+ people to march through the city’s streets for St. Patrick’s Day. According to Irish Star, Fay’s motivation for doing so stemmed from his own experiences of exclusion as a gay Catholic immigrant. 

Brendan Fay

Originally from Drogheda, County Louth, Fay immigrated to the US in the 1980s. His childhood experiences in Ireland were heavily shaped by the Sisters of Mercy, a Catholic women’s religious order, and at age 14 he entered the Irish Christian Brothers and remained a postulant for four years. During his young adulthood in Ireland–where homosexuality would not be decriminalized until 1993– Fay experienced considerable inner turmoil and anxiety, even turning to practitioners of conversion therapy. 

Upon moving to New York, Fay earned a master’s degree in theology from St. John’s University and spent five years teaching in Catholic high schools across the city, organizing peace and justice organizations, and pioneering AIDS awareness initiatives. However, due to his involvement with the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization (ILGO), Fay was terminated from his teaching role at a Catholic school. He persisted in his advocacy work, continuing to look for ways to serve both the LGBTQ+ and Irish communities. 

After years of being excluded from New York’s Fifth Avenue St Patrick’s Day Parade due to his sexuality and his involvement with LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, Fay was inspired to establish a parade specifically with Irish LGBTQ+ folks in mind. He remembers:

“I call 1999 the year of the three arrests. 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. 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…Irish LGBT people had a right to celebrate St Patrick’s Day just like every other group.”

For Fay, St. Pat’s for All not only provided an opportunity for Irish LGBTQ+ New Yorkers to come together and celebrate without fear, but it also demonstrated the similarities between and the intersections of the Irish immigrant experience and the queer experience. He explains:

“The [St. Patrick’s Day] parade was a response to the Irish people’s own experience of discrimination in the city. . . . 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.”

Although the parade was initially met with abuse and doubts, it soon garnered more positive public attention after Hillary Clinton called Fay to express her interest in marching. Since then, several notable attendees have participated including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, President Barack Obama’s human rights advisor James Cullen, and Pulitzer Prize laureate Paul Muldoon. 

In 2016, after years of campaigning, Lavender and Green Alliance finally received a warm welcome to participate in New York City’s St Patrick’s Day Parade. In 2021, Fay stepped down from St. Pat’s for All to make way for new generations of leadership after 22 years of organizing efforts. Fay has continued his advocacy work, shifting his focus to film projects and history research, and St. Pat’s Day for All has continued, having taken place this year on March 1st in Sunnyside, Queens. 

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

Fay’s work with St. Pat’s Day for All is a beautiful example of the power of advocacy and the power of community. Even when we are excluded by some, queer Catholics can follow Fay’s example in creating our own spaces and workting for our voices to be heard, trusting that we will never do so in vain. 

–Phoebe Carstens, New Ways Ministry, March 17, 2026