Subject: Lawsuit Dropped Against San Diego Pride
From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 20:58:39 -0400

LAMBDA LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATION FUND
PRESS RELEAESE

Anti- Gay Group Drops Lawsuit to March in San Diego Pride Parade

(SAN DIEGO, July 12, 1995)   As San Diego prepares this Saturday for its 21st
Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and the
American Civil Liberties Union  have secured a conclusive victory over a
group of anti-gay zealots who sought to include their protest within the
parade rather than on the sidelines.  

" We are gratified to have this frivolous lawsuit behind us,"  said Brenda
Schumacher,  executive director of San Diego Lesbian and Gay Pride, Inc.,
which organizes the annual parade.  " For the past two decades, the San Diego
Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade has welcomed all citizens who wish to show their
support for gay equality and pride.  But this group s only purpose was to
contradict our message.  We re glad this group and its members were finally
forced to concede our First Amendment right to express, undiluted, our
message of lesbian and gay pride."

In June 1994, an anti-gay group calling itself  Normal People  applied to
march in the lesbian and gay pride parade to express a homophobic  message.
When parade organizers rejected the application because their message was
contrary to the parade s, the anti-gay group brought a baseless lawsuit
claiming discrimination based on sexual orientation.  On the day before the
parade, the group sought an order requiring the parade organizers to include
them.  The application was rejected by Judge Wickersham of the San Diego
Superior Court, who ruled that the group's petition was not supported by
facts or law. 

 The group, nonetheless, pursued the case toward trial.  Finally, after
parade organizers submitted a motion to have the case thrown out of court,
lawyers for the  Normal People  conceded that the suit was without merit and
abandoned the case.  Terms of the dismissal were made available today.

"Gay people and their supporters have the right, like everyone else, to
celebrate their heritage and pride in a private parade,"  said Jordan Budd,
staff counsel for the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, which
represented the parade organizers along with Lambda.   "No one has the right
to invade another group s private parade to advocate a contrary message. "

Amelia Craig, managing attorney at the Western Regional Office of Lambda,
said,  "Contrary to the assertion by the group, it has always been absolutely
clear that  Normal People  was excluded because of its message, not because
of the sexual orientation of its members. In fact, the San Diego Lesbian and
Gay Pride Parade has a long history of diversity and openness. "

This resolution comes several weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled  that
the organizers of  private parades have a First Amendment right to exclude
groups whose message they disagree, in a case involving the exclusion of a
lesbian and gay group from the Boston St. Patrick s Day  arade.

Lambda and the ACLU will press on with their counterlawsuit seeking
reimbursement of monetary damages incurred in defending the frivolous
lawsuit.  Attorneys for the gay pride organizers also include Lambda's
cooperating attorney Ian Kramer, from the Los Angeles based law firm of
Munger, Tolles & Olson, and the ACLU's cooperating attorney Dale Manicom.
(Normal People v. San Diego Lesbian and Gay Pride, San Diego Superior Court,
No. 678682.)

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Contacts Denny Lee (Lambda) 212/995-8585; Jordan Budd (ACLU) 619/232-2121;
Brenda  chumacher (S. D. Pride) 619/297-7683.