From kevyn@KSUVM.KSU.EDUMon Jul 3 16:36:22 1995 Date: Mon, 3 Jul 1995 16:31:59 -0500 (CDT) From: Kevyn Jacobs To: "Kansas Queer News [KQN]" Cc: GLB-NEWS Subject: (USA, BOSTON) UDK Editorial on Gays in Boston's St.Pats Day Parade FROM THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS - LAWRENCE EDITORIAL PAGE - JUNE 28, 1995 ================================== The Issue: First Amendment Rights PARADE FLAUNTS FREE SPEECH ISSUE Organizers of Boston's St.Patrick Day's events have right to exclude gays, but actions show lack of today's tolerance. In a victory for the First Amendment, the Supreme Court ruled last week that because the organizers of Boston's St.Patrick's Day Parade were a group of private citizens, they had the right to include or exclude any group that wished to participate in the parade. The reasoning behind the decision was that the parade made a statement and therefore was protected as free speech. As such, the organizers had the right to decide what message they wanted to convey. Unfortunately, a message of acceptance, inclusion and caring wasn't one they felt important enough to include. Instead, they chose to ban a group that wanted to proclaim its pride in being homosexual and Irish. But the issue hasn't been that simple. Discrimination against gays has been widespread, and group solidarity has been necessary to provide greater understanding and equality within our society. Some wonder what the uproar might have been if the parade's organizers had chosen to ban an African-American group. It might have been a much louder statement, but having Black skin hasn't been seen as immoral - lately. Society has come a long way in race relations since the days when African-Americans weren't allowed to drink from the same water fountains as Caucasians, but it's views on homosexuality remains stuck in the generation of Edsels and nuclear families. The evidence accumulates that sexual preference is more biological than psychological. So even though the organizers of Boston's St.Patrick's Day Parade had the legal right to decide who would and would not participate in the event, making that decision based on an individual's sexual preference was wrong and misguided. -Todd Hiatt for the editorial board