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Bisexual beauty queen banned from St. Patty’s parade in New York

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Miss Staten Island Madison L’Insalata (Image via Instagram)

A New York borough has banned a beauty pageant queen from participating in its annual St. Patrick’s Day after she came out as bisexual.

Miss Staten Island Madison L’Insalata came out in an interview with the New York Post on Saturday, prompting parade organizer Larry Cummings to alert the pageant director that the 23-year-old would be banned from the event, which was held Sunday morning, due to “safety” concerns, the paper reported.

Staten Island organizers, along with those in other boroughs throughout the city, have a long history of rejecting LGBTQ participation in their annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration; years of controversy over the discriminatory policy have resulted in the gradual lifting of similar bans across the city. Following the end of the New York City parade’s ban in 2014, Staten Island became the last borough to still deny LGBTQ participants.

In addition to L’Insalata, the parade also banned Miss Richmond County’s Outstanding Teen, 17-year-old Victoria Montouri; and according to the director of the Pride Center of Staten Island, organizers told her they would not allow gay groups when she attempted to sign up for participation.

Also absent from the parade were Miss Staten Island’s Outstanding Teen Angelica Mroczek and Miss Richmond County Gabrielle Ryan, who boycotted the event because of its restriction on LGBT+ people. In addition, several local officials boycotted this year’s parade, calling for more inclusion in future festivities.

L’Insalata said the decision to ban her from the parade was “definitely a curveball.”

“I was really looking forward to being there and having a discussion and now there won’t be,” she told interviewers. “It’s sad this had to happen. I thought I was doing something good … You want to be part of the change.”

Still, the 23-year-old beauty queen showed up anyway, to watch from the sidelines and represent for the LGBTQ community – even if it was only from behind a metal barrier with the rest of the crowd.

“I still wanted to march because I felt I could make a much greater impact being in the parade, waving my rainbow flag,” she told the Post at the event on Sunday, where she sported a rainbow scarf and heart rainbow pin while holding up a small multicolored flag.

The Staten Island parade is one of dozens of St. Patrick’s Day events held throughout the city each year as New Yorkers celebrate Irish heritage and recognize the patron saint of both Ireland and the Catholic Archdiocese of New York. The Manhattan parade, which takes place on St. Patrick’s Day itself, March 17, is the largest of these, drawing approximately 150,000 marchers and two million spectators.

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PHOTOS: World Pride March

LGBTQ rights demonstration held in Amsterdam

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A scene from the 2026 World Pride March in Amsterdam. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The 2026 World Pride March was held on Saturday, Aug. 8 in Amsterdam. Tens of thousands of thousand participants marched from Martin Luther Kingpark to the grounds of the Pride Village at Museumplein.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)

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PHOTOS: Daddy Issues at Kiki

Evry Pleasure, Tiara Missou-Sidora, Indiana Bones perform

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Evry Pleasure performs at the 'Daddy Issues' drag show at Kiki on Wednesday. (Washington Blade photo by Landon Shackelford)

The weekly drag show “Daddy Issues” was held at Kiki on Wednesday, Aug. 5. Performers included Evry Pleasure, Indiana Bones and Tiara Missou-Sidora.

(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)

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Something’s off about Dad. When is it time to step in?

‘When Memory Fades’ can help when families face dementia

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(Book cover image courtesy of St. Martin's Essentials)

‘When Memory Fades’
By Nathaniel Chin, MD
c.2026, St. Martin’s Essentials
$30/422 pages

Mom called you in a panic the other day.

She’d lost her keys and by the time you arrived to help, she’d found them. In the refrigerator.

These kinds of things keep happening, not often but often enough, and you don’t know quite what to worry about. But in the new book “When Memory Fades” by Nathaniel Chin, MD, you’ll learn about the journey ahead, for both of you.

You can’t remember why you walked into a room. You got lost last week, going to the bank. Popular wisdom says that things like that are normal as we age, but Chin says that’s not true – although the answer may not be a worst-case scenario, either. Yes, memory problems could just be signs of stress, dehydration, or lack of sleep – or is it time to see a doctor?

Chin says maybe, yes.

He was working his way through medical residency when his father, a geriatrician in Madison, Wisc., was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Chin, now a geriatrician, was blindsided, but that diagnosis also changed his life.

Here, he writes about the brain, and how Alzheimer’s and dementia are diagnosed, explaining that dementia has many faces and, depending on a doctor’s evaluation, memory problems might be slowed or improved. He shares his father’s illness with readers, but he also writes about his mother, a steadfast, steady caretaker.

Her story reminds reader-guardians to care for themselves, too.

Know how to talk the talk, so that you can have “a more productive” conversation with your doctor. Understand that there’s nothing “normal” about dementia or Alzheimer’s. Know the statistics – African Americans are affected with dementia twice as much as whites – and know how to lower your risks. Learn here what questions to ask, how to break the news to everyone, and any legal matters that will be important soon. And know how to tend to you.

Says Chin, “The best action you can take is to educate yourself… The more you understand, the better equipped you are to make sound judgments.”

Something’s off about Dad, just a lot of little things that don’t add up. When is it time to step in? “When Memory Fades” can help you decide.

Wise, wide-spread, comprehensive, and compassionately helpful, this is a book you can read and then take it to the doctor with your loved one. It’s a book that makes sense when nothing else does, and its biggest feature is that it smoothly transitions from easy-to-grasp science and charts, to gentle coaching for caregivers. Author Nathaniel Chin, MD writes with storytelling, humility, grace, and experience from both sides of the Alzheimer’s/dementia issue, and his words are reassuring but also urgent. Learn, but don’t wait, he says. Know how to safeguard yourself. See your doctor, and don’t fear testing. Watch for signs of depression. And never, ever stop asking for help.

Read those last seven words, and find “When Memory Fades” now. It’s a book to have on your shelf, whether you’re 45 or 95 because, as you’ll see, dementia happens and knowledge is key.

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