Separate and Unequal

      Since 1995 when the US Supreme Court made an ill-fated and improvident decision to preclude the LGBT community from marching in the Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade of South Boston, the clock has been turned back on equality for the LGBT community.   Back then, the Irish American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston was denied the right to march in the parade, and took the battle to the Supreme Court and lost in a case known as Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston. 

      A Massachusetts law was enacted in the 1980’s designed to prevent discrimination in public accommodations such as stores or restaurants, or at events generally open to the public, including any event that, while private in nature, may receive at least partial assistance with government funds.  The Supreme Court overturned the application of that law in the parade context imparting privacy to parade organizers wishing to convey a message.

      The Supreme Court decision is wrong because it disenfranchises LGBT youth and sends the wrong decision to our community at large.  First, this is a public accommodations issue.  This parade is not a private act where the event takes place on streets maintained by tax-payer dollars, where public funds are used for maintaining the public order and where the city provides for clean up after the parade. Moreover, the parade is licensed by the city.

            Jose Cuadra lives in Dorchester, works at Francesca's cafe in the South End and plays for the Beantown Softball League.  He is 31 years old and celebrated St. Patrick's Day this year at a private party in South Boston because in he and his friends know that LGBT youth cannot march in the parade. Precluding people like Jose from participating and the rationale that people like Jose hold their “own” parade, is an affront to the time-honored notion established in landmark Supreme Court precedent that separate is inherently unequal.  

      In other public accommodations contexts states have a fundamental right to regulate public accommodations and public events that benefit from state assistance –  a principle concerning state’s rights that has often won the support of even the most conservative courts in other contexts, but which was inexplicably ignored in the context of preventing discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation. 

         An esteemed and pioneering journalist and historian, Chuck Colbert, noted in 2008 a firsthand account of the details of mistreatment suffered by LGBT marchers in the 1992 Boston St. Patrick’s Day parade.  According to Colbert, quoting from a Boston Herald article, “’Bottle and rock-throwing attacks’ greeted a gay Irish-American group marching in Boston’s 1992 St. Patrick’s Day parade.”  A year later, LGBT groups were precluded from participating in the parade.

      To deny LGBT members of the Irish community the opportunity to demonstrate their pride in their heritage along with their straight counterparts because they are different or not part of the "message" of the parade sends the wrong message to our city that LGBT people somehow not equal.  The Massachusetts legislature made great strides in the area of marriage equality when it rejected the notion of codifying discrimination into the state charter and when it repealed the 1913 Marriage Law that then Governor Mitt Romney invoked to deny out of state same sex couples the right to marry. 

      This year, in 2010, the Baystate Stonewall Democrats came together to protest and raise awareness that exclusion of LGBT organizations from the parade is discriminatory and that separate is unequal.  There were days when the law did not preclude signs in storefronts saying “No Irish Need Apply!” thereby protecting speech.  Most Irish have a vibrant memory of humiliating job discrimination and would not turn prejudice on others.

      This year Claire Naughton, the first straight co-chair any Stonewall Democrats' chapter in the nation, and I organized an alternative event for the LGBT community.  We are proud to be joined by elected officials, Rep. Liz Malia, Rep. Carl Sciortino, Councilor Felix Arroyo and Councilor Ayanna Pressley and more than 60 other supporters,  elected officials, candidates and friends, gay and straight, who joined with us at our first convening to celebrate Irish heritage and to continue the work for full equality. 

Jeff Ross is a practicing Boston attorney and former research associate of A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. at the John F. Kennedy School of Government 

BSSD Board Member Elected to Massachusetts Democratic State Committee

Dennis Naughton of Foxborough was recently elected to the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee. He now holds a male caucus seat in the Bristol Norfolk senatorial district. Naughton, who is in his second term on the BSSD Board, joins current BSSD Board members Carol Ann Aloisi, Oscar Arce, Tom Barbara, Rhonda Bourne, Kate Chang, Steve Driscoll, Patrick Hart, Shawn Hartman, Barbara Hoffman, Joe Kaplan, Tom McGrath, Claire Naughton, Lesley Phillips, Mel Poindexter, Tina Poindexter, and Bonnie Winokar on the Democratic State Committee. Two other BSSD members are also on the Democratic State Committee. They are Dee Dee Edmonson and Chad Raddock.

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BSSD Work Against Question One in Maine

BSSD volunteers at the No on 1 Campaign in Maine. From left to right, Dennis Naughton, Claire Naughton, Bonnie Winokar and Mary McCarthy.

On November first, several BSSD members took a trip  to Portland, Maine to help on the" No On 1 Protect Maine Equality" campaign.  Five BSSD members-Bonnie Winokar, Mary McCarthy, Steve Iannoccone, and Dennis and Claire Naughton- worked at the No On 1 headquarters from 11:30 until 5:15 P.M. . While having a great time networking, snacking and chatting with like minded people from all over the world,  we spent most of our time on phones and computers working on their GOTV push for the last 3 days of the campaign. The polls told us both sides were very close, so it came down to which side got their voters out.  We know we helped.

At 5:30 we met up with BSSD members Tom Barbera and Tony Fernandes, whose union, SEIU, was working against Question 4 on Maine's ballot. The SEIU generously treated the BSSD members, as well as several of their own MA members who were also working against #4, to a wonderful dinner at the Dry Dock in Portland.  Several of us had the best lobster stew outside of MA.  Thank you to the BSSD members who worked so hard and drove so far to work against Question One.  Thank you, also, SEIU, for your generosity.

As we know, Question One passed on November Third.  That brief time that we had to take joy in the thought that Marriage had been established in one more State in New England is now past.  Those of us who went to Maine or contributed in any other way against Question One can feel proud of the fact that we did so.  We all know that we must keep on working for GLBT causes  whatever they are and where ever they may arise.

Congratulations SEIU on your success in beating Question 4.

Claire Naughton, Co-Chair of the BSSD, and Bonnie Winokar, former Co-Chair.

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