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Boston Mayor Martin Walsh said Wednesday that he will boycott the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade unless it agrees to stop excluding gay and lesbian groups from its procession.

He has been trying to broker a deal with parade organizers to allow a gay veteran’s group sponsored by MassEquality to participate.

Walsh, the son of Irish immigrants, met in his City Hall office with organizers John “Wacko” Hurley and Philip J. Wuschke Jr. Walsh said they spoke about the parade, the 1995 Supreme Court case that gave the parade the right to exclude gay and lesbian groups, and the bloody civil rights battles in Northern Ireland between the Protestant majority and the Catholic minority. “We had a nice conversation,” Walsh said. “We had a little Irish history lesson.”

Parade organizers, however, are not changing their policy. Hurley says Walsh “is not in a position” to overturn the court’s decision.

But the mayor seemed resolute in his demand that gay veterans be allowed to march. South Boston has changed tremendously in the past two decades, he said, and popular support has shifted in favor of including everyone.

Kara Coredini, executive director of MassEquality said in the press release. “This is just another version of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’

Walsh is a long time supporter of the gay community. He played a key role in helping defeat an amendment to the state constitution that would have banned same-sex marriage, and says that boycotting the parade in the name of equality is a no-brainer. “I’m not in a tough spot,” he said.

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Carrie Stone