Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 13:26:14 -0500 From: David B. O'Donnell To: Multiple recipients of list GLB-NEWS Subject: Gays to March in Cambridge Parade [ Send all responses to chagin@MINDSPRING.COM only. Any responses to the list or list-owners will be returned to you. ] COMPILED FROM WIRE SERVICE DISPATCHES Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 Gay Group Says Will Not Challenge Parade Ruling But March in Cambridge BOSTON -- An Irish homosexual group said Thursday it will not challenge a court ruling banning them from marching in an annual St. Patrick's Day parade. Instead, leaders of the Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston said they will join in another parade scheduled March 12 in Cambridge. ``We really are excited that there's going to be a St. Patrick's Day parade in the region and we want to participate in it,'' said group spokesman David O'Connor. U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ruled last week that the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council could bar homosexuals from its St. Patrick's Day parade this year because it registered the event with the city as an anti-gay protest. Gays marched in the South Boston parade in 1993 under a state judge's order. Another state judge cleared the way for them to take part in 1994, but the veterans council canceled the parade rather than let them march again. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review those rulings, which called the parade a ``public accommodation'' that can't exclude gays. Arguments are scheduled for April. In the most recent case, the veterans council filed a federal lawsuit against the city, arguing that it couldn't force the veterans to let GLIB into the March 19 parade as a condition of the council's parade permit. Wolf said he doesn't agree with the exclusion, but ruled in favor of the veterans.