>Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1993 23:53:00 EDT >From: Song Weaver BOSTON (UPI) -- Veterans who sponsor Boston's annual St. Patrick's Day Parade said Tuesday they will cancel the event next year unless a court order allowing homosexuals to march is overturned. The South Boston Allied War Veterans Council is appealing a permanent injunction that bars it from excluding homosexuals from the March parade. Council President John Hurley said if that appeal fails, the council will pull out of the parade it has sponsored for 47 years. The Suffolk County Superior Court earlier this month issued a permanent injunction preventing the sponsors from keeping the Irish- American Gay Lesbian and Bisexual Group out of the parade. The veterans said that ruling amounted to "prior restraint censorship" of the veterans' constitutional right to free speech. They have appealed that ruling to the state Supreme Court. "We take this action regrettably but necesssarily to send the clear message that we believe our First Amendment rights are at issue," Hurley said in a statement published Tuesday in the Boston Herald. "The traditional family values which have been the hallmark of our community and parade are worth fighting for," Hurley said. He said the veterans would rather cancel the parade than "suffer the continued embarrassment and humiliation of having a group calling itself GLIB flaunt its unwelcome message." Hurley said the council's decision denies the homosexual group "the opportunity to use our forum to mock (the parade's) values." GLIB said it will continue to insist that it be included in the parade, which it called a public event. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino appealed to the veterans to reconsider their position, and said he would "work hard to see that the parade continues as a successful event for many years to come." GLIB marched under temporary court order and heavy police protection in 1992 and 1993. The Dec. 15 ruling by Judge Harold Flannery made the injunction against the parade sponsors permanent and allows the homosexual group to take part without restrictions. GLIB attorney Elsie Kappler said there was a full and fair hearing "and the laws squarely supports" the homosexual marchers. GLIB argued that the streets along the parade route are areas of "public accommodation" where discrimination is prohibited. Earlier this year, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination fined the veterans council for discriminating against the homosexual marchers and ordered it to stop.