Upon the invitation of the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council, gay groups OutVets and Boston Pride made history on Sunday by participating in the city's St. Patrick's Day Parade. OutVet is made up of gay military veterans, while Boston Pride is a gay rights group.

The welcoming of gay groups was the result of a December vote by the current leaders of the Allied War Council to allow OutVet to join this year's march. It was a close vote of 5-4, reports NBC.

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For the past 20 years, mayors of Boston did not attend the parade because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that favored the council's move to ban gay groups on First Amendment grounds. With the change in the council's stand, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker joined Sunday's parade.

Also in the parade was Democratic U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, an ex-Marine and veteran of the Iraq War.

Prior to the parade,  Bryan Bishop, the founder and leader of OutVet who is also an Air Force veteran, told the group's contingent, "We march today for the memories of those thousands and thousands of people who went before us, some who went to their graves in the closet."

Walsh, who was happy that the gay issue was finally put to rest, disclosed that despite the ban, gays actually took part in past St. Patrick's Day parade under different banners.

While the gays are "in," some Catholic groups, such as Massachusetts's Knights of Columbus, were "out" of the parade because they felt the event was politicized, which appears to be their way of saying they will not march in a parade side by side with gays and lesbians.

Meanwhile, in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio boycotted the parade again because of the refusal of the organizer to allow more than one gay rights group to join the march, reports Huffington Post.

TagsGay, Boston, St. Patrick's Day