FILE - In a March 17, 2006 file photo, members of the Irish-American gay community protest on Fifth Avenue against the exclusion of Irish and Irish-American gays people from marching in the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade Friday, in New York. Organizers of the world's largest St. Patrick's Day Parade say they're ending a ban and allowing a gay group to march under its own banner for the first time. The parade committee, in a statement made available to The Associated Press, said on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014, that OUT@NBCUniversal, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender support group at the company that broadcasts the parade, would be marching up Manhattan's Fifth Avenue on March 17 under an identifying banner. (AP Photo/Dima Gavrysh, File)