Guinness' St Patrick’s Day event loses New York sponsors

Key sponsor of New York’s St Patrick’s Day parade and Irish brewer Guinness has reportedly ended the partnership because gay and lesbian groups have been excluded.“Guinness has a strong history of supporting diversity and being an advocate for equality for all. We were hopeful that the policy of exclusion would be reversed for this year’s parade,” Guinness said in a statement to The New York Times.“As this has not come to pass, Guinness has withdrawn its participation. We will continue to work with community leaders to ensure that future parades have an inclusionary policy,” Guinness added.Meanwhile other beer makers such as Heineken and Sam Adams also dropped their support for the event following the exclusion of the gay and lesbian groups.According to The New York Times article, while gay groups were allowed to take part in the procession, they could not however identify their sexuality.Meanwhile in Singapore, Guinness also launched its own event and invited Singaporeans to get into the Irish spirit from 14 to 17 March with a weekend of festivities. To garner support for the event, the Irish brewer also launched a new digital campaign to promote the festivities.Pictures of the event here:[gallery link="file" ids="41639,41640,41641,41642"]