From: Jason Lin <71043.1570@CompuServe.COM>

                   
  NEW YORK (AP) -- The city rebuffed an Irish-Catholic fraternal
society that has sponsored the St. Patrick's Day parade for 139 years
and awarded the 1993 permit to a group that promised to allow Irish
gays to march under their own banner.  
   Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly awarded the permit Friday to the
St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee, a newly organized group formed by
liberal Irish-Americans who are allies of Mayor David Dinkins.  
   The longtime sponsor, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, has been
embroiled in a bitter three-year struggle to prevent the Irish
Lesbian and Gay Organization from marching as an official group in
the March 17 parade.  
   The city's Human Rights Commission ruled last year that the parade
was not religious but secular, and therefore not entitled to
constitutional protections of association. The Hibernians are
challenging the ruling in state Supreme Court.  
   The Hibernians had told the gay group it could not march because
there was a long waiting list to get into the parade.  
   The new parade committee's chairman, Brian O'Dwyer, said, "We are
going to allow every group that was on the waiting list two years ago
to march.  
   "We promise the police commissioner and the people of New York we
will run a parade that will make them proud," he said.  
   Hibernian officials have said they have no objection to
homosexuals marching as individuals with other Irish groups, but that
they did not want them parading together with a banner. Homosexual
activity is considered sinful by the Roman Catholic Church.  
   In a statement, the mayor said "I am confident that we will
continue to move toward the goal of having a successful and inclusive
parade."  
   Frank Beirne, who had been chairman of the parade committee for
the past decade, said he had not heard that the permit had been
awarded yet, but said, "If it's true, Mayor Dinkins has a religious
war on his hands."