Yesterday, a comment surfaced on Facebook in response to a status about the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which the original poster was not attending due to the chaotic nature of the event.
“. . . and the disgusting, homophobic people who run it. I’m going, but I’m keeping that in mind,” said the commenter.
It’s a very strong statement, followed by one that wholly contradicts the former. If you have this opinion, why would you support the parade by going? To be clear, this was not someone who is affiliated with Simmons College in any way, nor was the original poster.
Talks between parade organizers and MassEquality broke down over the weekend prior to the parade, over the fact that the organizers refused to allow “LGBTQ” to be on banners. Previously, the opposition noted that gay veterans could march in the parade, so long as they didn’t make a “show” of it.
Not exactly the picture of equality and tolerance.
The St. Patrick’s Day Parade manages to block gay veterans from marching every year. The people who are in support of this have been shown to be homophobes— Breitbart, the commenters of the Boston Herald discussion page — and the people who run the parade are very biased.
In an interview with the Boston Herald, John “Wacko” Hurley, one of the main parade organizers, said he has “plenty of gay friends,” in an effort to prove he’s not a bigot. He also said those friends are “coming in as friends, not as gay friends.”
The Boston Globe noted that despite the reignited controversy this year there were plenty of parade goers who seemed to be having a good time. One interviewee noted, “This is 2014. Everybody can march. Wake up.”
The fact of the matter is that the South Boston parade organizers are able to get away with banning gay people in 2014 because people will still attend the festivities. There will always be people willing to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by littering the streets with empty beer cans, despite the medieval policy.
Next year, if you’re aware of the insulting ban on gay participation in the parade, and it outrages you, skip the parade and encourage your friends to do the same. We’re optimistic that your morals won’t cause you to skip too many more parades — this may not be an issue in 2015.
