Southie St Patrick's Day Organizers Continue to Discriminate

[DriftingCrow]

Allied War Veteran's Council, the organizer's of South Boston's annual St. Patrick's Day parade continue to prevent LGBT affiliated groups from entering the parade. GLIB (Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston) applied to march in the 1992 parade, but was rejected due to being LGBT affiliated. GLAD became involved and brought the issue up to the US Supreme Court in the case of Hurley v. GLIB where the Supreme Court allowed GLIB to march in the 1992 and 1993 parade under a court order. In 1994, the organizers cancelled the parade because they didn't want an LGBT group to participate.

http://www.baywindows.com/St-Patricks-Parade-inspires-candidates-and-elected-officials

Now, the LGBTQ group MassEquality wants to march in the parade, but organizers claim the parade is "full" which seems ingenuine given their 18 year history of barring LGBTQ groups from participating.

http://www.baywindows.com/Southie-Parade-Organizers-Reject-LGBT-Oranization

[Devlyn]

I'm of mixed minds here, and biased. I am half Irish, and growing up we always spent Saint Patricks Day at my grandmothers house on O Street in South Boston, three doors away from the parade route. The parade is a family friendly community event, with great importance placed on "the wearing o' the Green"

Tear me a new one if you must, but the various LGBT groups over the years have done a good job of trying to turn the parades into Mardi Gras/Carnival like spectacles with sexual themes. It's out of place, and makes bad headlines.

Inclusion means being part of things, not having things change because you want them different, and focused on yourself.

[DriftingCrow]

I'd never tear you a new one Devlyn 

I do agree that there shouldn't be sexual tones to a family friendly event and some groups have gone a bit overboard at times, I wonder if they could set rules to address these concerns instead of just banning those they don't want?

[Devlyn]

There's the rub. The groups that have gotten in, have gotten themselves uninvited, not for who they were, but for their behaviour.