--- title: Guinness Withdraws from St. Patrick's Day Parade Over LGBT Ban description: The iconic Irish brewer, a major sponsor of the city's street parade, has withdrawn its support after organizers refused to allow gay and lesbian groups to openly participate, saying it's "an advocate for equality for all" canonical: https://time.com/26898/guinness-withdraws-from-st-patricks-day-parade-over-lgbt-ban/ author: Dan Kedmey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-17T09:58:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:47:53.514Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Guinness Withdraws from St. Patrick's Day Parade Over LGBT Ban og:description: The iconic Irish brewer, a major sponsor of the city's street parade, has withdrawn its support after organizers refused to allow gay and lesbian groups to openly participate, saying it's "an advocate for equality for all" og:url: https://time.com/26898/guinness-withdraws-from-st-patricks-day-parade-over-lgbt-ban/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45d18665f5eec6f0/698685c513c79f8129191101/guinness-beer.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Pints of Guinness. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Guinness Withdraws from St. Patrick's Day Parade Over LGBT Ban twitter:description: The iconic Irish brewer, a major sponsor of the city's street parade, has withdrawn its support after organizers refused to allow gay and lesbian groups to openly participate, saying it's "an advocate for equality for all" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45d18665f5eec6f0/698685c513c79f8129191101/guinness-beer.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Guinness Withdraws from St. Patrick's Day Parade Over LGBT Ban  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Mar 17, 2014 9:58 AM UTC  Pints of Guinness. Pints of Guinness.Peter MacDiarmid—Reuters  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Mar 17, 2014 9:58 AM UTC First mayors, then sponsors, [now](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/17/guinness-pulls-out-new-yorks-st-patricks-day-parade) that quintessential Irish brewer Guinness is squaring off with St. Patrick’s Day parade organizers over gay rights. The _Guardian_ [reports](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/17/guinness-pulls-out-new-yorks-st-patricks-day-parade) that Guinness, a prominent sponsor of New York’s parade, withdrew its support after organizers refused to allow gay and lesbian groups to openly participate. “Guinness has a strong history of supporting diversity and being an advocate for equality for all,” [read](http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/17/us-usa-boston-st-patricks-idUSBREA2F0HY20140317) an official statement from the brewer’s parent company, Diageo. “We were hopeful that the policy of exclusion would be reversed for this year’s parade.” The move comes after Boston and New York’s mayors and two other major brewers decided to skip St. Patrick’s Day parades in solidarity with LGBT groups. \[[_Guardian_](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/17/guinness-pulls-out-new-yorks-st-patricks-day-parade)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/26898/guinness-withdraws-from-st-patricks-day-parade-over-lgbt-ban/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/26898/guinness-withdraws-from-st-patricks-day-parade-over-lgbt-ban/"},"headline":"Guinness Withdraws from St. Patrick's Day Parade Over LGBT Ban","datePublished":"2014-03-17T09:58:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:47:53.514Z","description":"The iconic Irish brewer, a major sponsor of the city's street parade, has withdrawn its support after organizers refused to allow gay and lesbian groups to openly participate, saying it's \"an advocate for equality for all\"","url":"https://time.com/26898/guinness-withdraws-from-st-patricks-day-parade-over-lgbt-ban/","keywords":["Gay Rights","Beer","LGBT","Boycott","Ban","St. Patrick's Day","drinking","parade","march"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45d18665f5eec6f0/698685c513c79f8129191101/guinness-beer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Kedmey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45d18665f5eec6f0/698685c513c79f8129191101/guinness-beer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pints of Guinness.","caption":"Pints of Guinness.","creditText":"Peter MacDiarmid—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/26898/guinness-withdraws-from-st-patricks-day-parade-over-lgbt-ban/","name":"Guinness Withdraws from St. Patrick's Day Parade Over LGBT Ban"}}]}] ```