Next March, a gay group will be allowed to march under its own banner in the world's largest St. Patrick's Day Parade for the first time. Organizers of the New York parade said Wednesday that they are lifting the ban on identified gay groups from participating in the parade.

The prohibition of these groups from marching has raised political heat. Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would not march this spring and Guinness beer said it was dropping its sponsorship.

The parade's committee released a statement to the Associated Press on Wednesday announcing that OUT@NBCUniversal, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender support group for the employees of the company that airs the parade, would have a place in the parade on March 17 under an identifying banner.

It remains unclear how or why this group was chosen and whether the company that broadcasts the festivities pressured organizers or if the group had applied to be in the parade. Whatever the motivation, parade directors unanimously voted to include OUT@NBCUniversal, according to the statement.

Spokesman for the organizers Bill O'Reilly said other gay groups will be able to apply in future years. According to the New York Times, gays were allowed to march but only with other groups and were not allowed banners that identified them as gay.

This "change of tone and expanded inclusiveness is a gesture of goodwill to the LGBT community in our continuing effort to keep the parade above politics," the committee said.

The statement continued to say that "organizers have diligently worked to keep politics-of any kind-out of the parade in order to preserve it as a single and unified cultural event. Paradoxically, that ended up politicizing the parade."

The 2015 parade will have about 320 units, the committee's statement said. New York's St. Patrick's Day Parade began in 1792 and draws thousands of spectators and participants each year.