A pair of Staten Island high school marching bands were blocked from the borough’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade because students refused to remove LGBTQ symbols from their uniforms, according to a report.

Bands from Tottenville and Port Richmond high schools were turned away from Sunday’s controversial parade after declining to remove rainbow heart stickers, students told the Staten Island Advance.

Tottenville’s marching band eventually decided to leave the parade after being given the ultimatum to remove them or not participate, students told the outlet.

“I felt extremely disrespected when our band was told that we couldn’t march in the parade with rainbow stickers on our uniforms,” one student who asked to remain unidentified told the outlet. “It’s horribly homophobic and so disrespectful to the LGBTQ+ community.”

The news came as parade organizers were also criticized for barring local beauty queen Madison L’Insalata from the festivities after she came out as bisexual. L’Insalata, 23, showed up anyway and watched the annual affair from the sidelines.

Gabrielle Ryan, a Port Richmond senior who was previously named Miss Richmond County, said some of her classmates were also blocked from participating in the parade over the stickers. She learned of the apparent ban of LGBTQ symbols after taking part in the Rainbow Run, an annual event held by the Pride Center of Staten Island to raise awareness of gay groups that are excluded from the parade.

“When I was walking back from the Rainbow Run during the start of the parade, I saw one of my friends,” Ryan told the newspaper. “The parade organizers told the band that they had to take off rainbow heart stickers they were wearing or they couldn’t march.”

The coordinator of student activities at Port Richmond, meanwhile, said marching band students got the stickers from a high school club called the Gender Sexuality Alliance. The students balked at removing the stickers when told they needed to do so to take part in the parade, student activity coordinator Vinnie Medugno said.

“Students in the marching band wore them to support the school community and Miss Richmond County,” he told the newspaper. “I’m glad the students and staff took the high road with respect to the community.”

“It was unacceptable to ask these students to take off their stickers and problematic that their participation in the parade was contingent on not wearing a pride sticker,” Department of Education spokesperson Danielle Filson said. “We are proud of our students for standing up for the LGBTQ+ community and standing against discrimination.”

City Councilman Joseph Borelli also said he was “physically blocked” from marching in the parade because he was wearing a tiny pride pin.

“They called police on me,” the Republican told the Advance. “I spoke to a sergeant and was not going to make the life of our cops more complicated to prove a point. I didn’t come looking for an argument. My friends handed a pin to me. I really didn’t think it was a big affront to the Irish.”