Organizers of the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in South Boston have
refused to allow the LGBT group MassEquality to participate in the 2014
parade, reports Boston.com.
MassEquality was notified their application had been rejected via an after-hours voicemail left by the parade organizers who cited the 1995 US Supreme Court decision in Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston, as the reason they are legally able to legally able to exclude LGBT groups from participating. In that ruling, the Supreme Court granted John J. Hurley – the previous organizer of the parade – the right to deny any group from participating if it presented a message that was contrary to the one the private organization wished to express.
However, the parade organizers later clarified to the Boston Globe that they do not ban LGBT people from the parade, only LGBT demonstrations.
“We don’t know who’s gay in the parade, and we don’t ban gay people. We ban gay
demonstrations, people that are sending out the wrong messages, messages that we don’t agree with,” parade organizer Philip Wuschke told the Boston Globe. “It’s not that type of parade. They have their own parade. Ours is a day of celebration, not demonstration.” Full story here via the Advocate!
MassEquality was notified their application had been rejected via an after-hours voicemail left by the parade organizers who cited the 1995 US Supreme Court decision in Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston, as the reason they are legally able to legally able to exclude LGBT groups from participating. In that ruling, the Supreme Court granted John J. Hurley – the previous organizer of the parade – the right to deny any group from participating if it presented a message that was contrary to the one the private organization wished to express.
However, the parade organizers later clarified to the Boston Globe that they do not ban LGBT people from the parade, only LGBT demonstrations.
“We don’t know who’s gay in the parade, and we don’t ban gay people. We ban gay
demonstrations, people that are sending out the wrong messages, messages that we don’t agree with,” parade organizer Philip Wuschke told the Boston Globe. “It’s not that type of parade. They have their own parade. Ours is a day of celebration, not demonstration.” Full story here via the Advocate!
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