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The article comments on the exclusion of the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization (ILGO) from the line of march of the 1993 Saint Patrick's Day Parade upon returning the permit for the parade to its traditional holders, the New York Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH). In 1991, there was an application from the ILGO to join the period but the committee in charge put the application on a lengthy wait. Then a unit within the AOH invited ILGO to march as its guest resulting a negative outcome from spectators. A U.S. Human Rights Commission judge ruled in March 1992 that the parade committee could discriminate in a private event and ILGO as excluded. Then, in October 1992, the individual member's ruling was overturned. The full commission stated that ILGO should be allowed to march. Then John Cardinal O'Connor's criticism of the permit award as a public intrusion on a church festival and his threat to withdraw the diocesan -affiliated organizations and schools from participation triggered the decision to return the permit.