Gay and pro-gay activists have complained that the St. Patrick's Day Parade held annually in New York City is a parade that celebrates homophobia, claiming that for the past 25 years, they have built a case that the parade represents bigoted "Catholic character."

According to Crisis Magazine, the cries of the gay activists fell on deaf ears when they held a hearing regarding their complaints against the 250-year old civic parade.

However, things took a turn in their favour recently when the committee behind the parade stopped defending its practices.

Now, the activists are demanding a secular St. Patrick's Day parade organised by them "in the non-Irish way."

The parade now has a new leader—Quinnipiac University president John L. Lahey, who took the post from long-time chairman John T. Dunleavy.

Dunleavy has waged a lengthy war with the gay activists, who denounced him as "the standard-bearer for religious homophobia."

On Oct. 29, Lahey called a meeting with the parade's board of directors to discuss the proposed changes on the organisation's by-laws. According to the meeting's published agenda, they are now deciding whether or not they need to change or remove the section that states, "The Parade will be held in honour of St Patrick, the Patron Saint of the Archdiocese of New York and the Patron Saint of Ireland."

They also mulled whether they should remove the requirement that members of the St. Patrick's Day Parade committee be Roman Catholic, active members of a parish, and of Irish descent.

Despite all of these "victories" accomplished by gay activists, the Archdiocese of New York has remained silent regarding the issue. In the past, all the archdiocese said about the developments was: "The Saint Patrick's Day Parade is run by the parade committee, not by the archdiocese, and anything they want to do is up to them."