Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 7, 1995 TAG: 9501090054
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The court voted to review rulings that said the annual parade is an open recreational event whose sponsor cannot discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation.
The South Boston Allied War Veterans Council, which for years has run the parade, had argued that the lower court rulings violate its free-speech rights by forcing it to include the gay group.
The Boston case was one of 12 granted review Friday by the court, which chose not to follow the traditional practice of waiting until Monday to issue such orders. The justices conduct their closed-door conferences, in which new cases are discussed, on Fridays.
Massachusetts' highest court ruled in July that the ``lack of selectivity exerted by the veterans over the parade's participants'' and the parade's historical roots make it more a public accommodation than any expressive activity protected by the Constitution's First Amendment.
The Boston parade, which some years has featured as many as 20,000 participants and a million spectators, not only honors Irish-Americans, but also celebrates Evacuation Day, George Washington's victory that forced British troops out of South Boston in 1776.
In ruling against the veterans in 1993, Judge J. Harold Flannery said, ``History does not record that St. Patrick limited his ministry to heterosexuals or that General Washington's soldiers were all straight. Inclusiveness should be the hallmark of their parade.''
Last March 17, the veterans canceled the parade rather than allow the Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston to participate. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said then that the city would sponsor the parade in 1995 so that the gay group could be included.
The Massachusetts high court noted that a federal court in New York had allowed that city's St. Patrick's Day parade sponsors, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, to exclude a gay group.
That group, the Massachusetts court said, ``had used the parade as a means of expression. ... The admission process was selective and ... had adopted rules to prevent parade participants from using that parade as a forum to express views inconsistent with the views of the Ancient Hibernians or the Roman Catholic Church.''
In the appeal acted on Friday, lawyers for the Boston veterans' council said the state court rulings let government ``dilute, distort and contradict ... the whole point of a privately organized and funded parade or demonstration.''
by CNB