Mrs Hillary Clinton marched in a St Patrick's parade here yesterday to show solidarity with the Irish Gay and Lesbian Groups excluded from the main parade along Fifth Avenue in 12 days.
But there was little sign of St Patrick as the parade passed along Skillman Avenue in the largely Irish Woodside-Queens area of New York, East of Manhattan.
At times, Mrs Clinton, wearing a black coat with a green scarf, disappeared from the view of the onlookers as she was surrounded by local Democratic politicians and supporters holding up "Hillary" banners from her election campaign. She is running for a Senate seat in New York next November.
Following Mrs Clinton was the Gay and Lesbian Lavender and Green Alliance with balloons and the Cleveland Lesbian and Gay Organisation and several other gay groups.
A local group protesting against the gay element in the parade had distributed pamphlets denouncing it as an "evil parade". "Compounding this March 5th sacrilege and desecration of the memory of a great and holy saint, Sunday's homosexual parade is to have many children as participants", the pamphlet said. The parade's main purpose is "to make simple and immoral homosexual conduct acceptable to the large traditional values - religious neighbourhood of Woodside".
The pamphlet has the names of a Catholic priest and a Rabbi at the bottom.
There was little sign of protest along the route. A man and woman held up signs saying "blasphemy". There was a largely carnival atmosphere as ethnic groups including native American Indians, Koreans, Chileans and Puerto Ricans marched and drummed. Giant puppets from Vermont strutted along, amusing the onlookers.
It was the first time a St Patrick's parade has been held in the area. The organisers said it would reflect the diversity of the Irish community. It would be "welcoming of those in our community who have been excluded from other parades throughout the city", said Mr Brendan Fay, of the Lavender and Green Alliance, who was marching in the front row.
Reuters adds:
President Clinton was in Alabama yesterday to retrace the steps of civil rights marchers, 35 years after state police attacked about 600 demonstrators at Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Mr Clinton's commemoration of the "Bloody Sunday" violence of March 7th, 1965, was meant to applaud the demonstrators of the 1960s who fought for voting rights for black Americans and to push for more progress in civil rights.
On his way into Selma, Mr Clinton stopped his motorcade on the far side of the Pettus bridge and stood at a stone monument to the marchers, where the "Bloody Sunday" violence began.
He and the civil rights leader, the Rev Jesse Jackson, stood for a few moments with their heads bowed and then returned to the motorcade.