After being banned from participating for decades​, LGBTQ+ groups were allowed to march on Sunday in the Staten Island St. Patrick's Day Parade.

The Cycling Murrays ride their unicycles at St. Patrick's Day parade in Bay Shore. Credit: Morgan Campbell Parade steps off on the corner of Saxon Avenue and Kempster Avenue to Main Street and down to St.

Parade attendees said celebrating Irish heritage, enjoying music and the costumes bring them back every year.

For the first time, the Pride Center of Staten Island held its own banner and joined the St. Patrick’s Day parade. Sunday marked an end to the 60-year ban on LGBTQ+ groups marching in Staten Island’s St.

The parade — the last major local St. Paddy’s march to have an exclusionary ban on such groups — decided in November to allow the community-based Pride Center of Staten Island to partake in the annual event,

Every step members of the Pride Center of Staten Island took along the parade route on Sunday created a historic march down Forest Avenue in West Brighton that will be remembered for years to come. The tears of joy that trickled from marchers' eyes and the crowds' cheers as the Pride Center walked past was testament to how significant this day was.