NEW YORK CITY — On the night before St. Patrick's Day, Gaby Cryan was hunched over the sewing machine in her living room, where she'd been camped for more than a week, weaving together sashes out of strips of lavender and green silk.
For more than a decade she has protested the St. Patrick's Day parade for its rule against LGBTQ groups marching behind their own banner on Fifth Avenue. Last year she stood in protest, wearing a green sash that simply said "BANNED."
On Thursday, she and hundreds of others, wearing the green and lavender sashes put together in Cryan's Crown Heights apartment, will finally get to participate in the parade.
The Lavender and Green Alliance will be the first Irish Gay group allowed to participate in the parade, and they'll march behind their banner along with other groups.
"It's surreal," Cryan, 32, said, while picking a frayed hem from one of the more than 150 sashes she's made this year.
Asked if she ever thought she could march, Cryan joked, "we were beginning to wonder."
The decision marks an end to the fight that began 25 years ago, when the first openly gay group tried to apply for a permit to march in the parade, which goes back to the 1700s.
They were first told the parade was full, Cryan said. But they later found out it was because of who they were, and that they wanted to march openly.
Cryan wears the "BANNED" sash she made for the 2015 parade. (DNAinfo/Katie Honan)
Longtime activist Lisa Fane was arrested multiple times at parades, hauled off in plastic handcuffs for standing on Fifth Avenue.
"The lack of justice was very startling," she said.
This year, she and her wife, Molly Lally, were instead ironing the sashes they'll wear for the parade.
For years, she'd been told that in "choosing to be gay, you're no longer Irish." Others didn't understand why she was so insistent on marching openly.
"We were told, 'You have your parade in June,'" she said, referring to the annual Pride Parade.
"The St. Patrick's parade was not your parade, ever again."
Cryan and other protesters at the 2011 parade. (Irish Queers)
A costumer at the Metropolitan Opera House, and active participant in Irish Queers, Cryan was tasked with the sash job for obvious reasons.
She worked with the Garment District's B&J Fabrics, which donated 80 yards of fabric for the inaugural sashes.
She began protesting at the parade in 2005. Although she's been politically active since high school, it took her a while to get into the St. Patrick's Day demonstrations.
Cryan grew up in Breezy Point, a neighborhood with the highest concentration of Irish-Americans in the country. It's in New York City, but often feels a world apart, she said.
While her Catholic family wasn't very religious, she couldn't help but be exposed to the religious customs.
"It doesn't go away," she said.
Her family's acceptance of her sexual orientation was a "process," she said, and she's thankful for their unwavering support now.
Yet protesting the parade — which she attended many times as a kid — still seemed too personal.
"I felt that it was too close to home to go there," she said. "I wasn't really ready for that."
Getting to the point where everyone could march took time, and lots of hard work from countless advocates, Cryan said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and other politicians have boycotted it for two years. (The mayor will march Thursday with the Lavender and Green Alliance.)
Last year's inclusion of an LGBTQ group from NBC, which airs the parade on TV, was just a small step toward full inclusion.
Cryan said she slowly noticed a shift in revelers on the sidewalk.
When she started in 2005, people would throw beer bottles at their signs. Over the years, she'd hear from people who told her how unfair it was they couldn't participate.
"Drunk groups of kids will pick up a sign and hold it for a few minutes," she said with a smile.
"There was a cultural change over the 10 years."
Cryan admits to mixed feelings over being able to march. While it's a victory, there's still much more that needs to be done for equal rights across the world.
But their participation represents the struggle of many — with roots to the historic Easter Rising nearly 100 years ago.
"It's important for gay immigrants who may not want to come out because of their reliance on their Irish community," she said.
And it's important for kids like her.
"Growing up, I didn't even know gay people existed until I was 10 or 11," she said. "But I did go to the St. Patrick's Day parade."
