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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 7, 1995)
10 T July 7. 1005 ▼ Just out I sn ’ t TIME it The only way to shake a drug or alcohol addiction is to he honest. And that takes trust. The Triangle Project is a safe, respectful, and confidential treatment program for members of the gay and lesbian community. And because your counselor is gay, you can talk honestly T O O U T Y OU l PROBLEM? about all the issues in your life. We're licensed by the State o f Oregon and accept most insurance plans, including the Oregon Health Plan We also offer a sliding fee. So call us at 224-0073. Addiction is one secret you can't afford to keep. sponsored by: I?......,^| ASAP Treatment Services, 2130 SW 5th Ave, Suite 100 V Jl ' Portland, Oregon 97201 224-0075 national news Supreme Court says no to Boston Irish queers Mixed reactions greet the verdict that takes a unanimous stand on the First Amendment T by Bob Roehr Garden Statuary • Soaps • Icons 3707 SE Hawthorne Portland, Oregon 97214 5 0 3 -2 3 5 - 1 2 5 7 Do you play at Sauvie Island, in pu blic parks, or in the bookstores? When first banned from the city’s parade, GLIB held its own St. Patrick’s Day Parade in 1993 L It's Summer esbian and gay Irish paraders in Bos ton lost and First Amendment protec tion of free speech won in a rare unani mous decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. Organizers of a private parade have the right to decide who to include and what messages to allow within that event, said Justice David Souter in the opinion released June 19. The Irish American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston (GLIB) had organized to cel ebrate its members’ heritage and participate in the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. The South Boston Allied War Veterans Council, the private group organizing the activity, denied the group’s application. GLIB members maintained that the parade was a “public accommodation” and that the Veterans Council discriminated against them simply be cause they are gay. That is illegal under Massa chusetts law. GLIB sued and won at every level of the state court system. "The central issue is whether the government can mandate the content of a privately organized parade,” said Veterans Council attorney Chester Darling at oral argu ments before the Supreme Court. The court agreed. Souter’s carefully worded opinion drew on a long tradition of protection of free speech in decid ing in the council’s favor. He called the parade “a public drama...making some sort of collective point, not just to each other but to bystanders along the way.” It is clearly protected speech, the court concluded. The opinion upheld the constitutionality of the Massachusetts law banning discrimination, saying it simply didn’t apply in this situation. Some les bian and gay legal observers had been fearful that the court might somehow undercut that law. The Veterans Council reacted with jubilation; GLIB, with disappointment. GLIB spokeswoman Cathleen Finn was “shocked” by the unanimous vote. No further legal recourse is possible. Support for GLIB’s position within the gay and lesbian community had been mixed from the start. Tom Stoddard, former executive director of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, ex pressed the vie ws of many when he said, “ You lose your association rights when you operate in public...they [the council] do have a right to ex clude.” He made the comments several months ago on the PBS program Freedom Speaks. The American Civil Liberties Union had filed an amicus brief in support of neither party. It released a statement calling the decision “a sound one that reflects well-established First Amend ment principles and reaffirms that every speaker has the right to craft his or her message without government interference.” “What would happen if a homophobic ‘ex-gay ministry’ wanted to march in our pride parades chanting ‘Hey, hey, ho, ho, Barney Fag has got to go?’ Would we let the government force us to include that hateful message in our cel ebration? I don’t think so,” said David Morris, president of the liber tarian group Gays and Lesbians for Indi vidual Rights. ‘True freedom means we re spect the rights of oth ers as much as our own rights.” Perhaps the most tantalizing part of the deci sion is where it might lead the court in future deliberations on the question of lesbians and gay men in the military. A central tenet of those legal challenges is the issue of free speech—the right to say one is lesbian or gay and still remain a member of the armed forces. “A narrow, succinctly articulable message is not a condition of constitutional protection,” Souter wrote. His defense of free speech and the state nondis crimination law, his differentiation between pri vate and government activities and their corre sponding different levels of scrutiny, and his leav ing open the possibility of future First Amendment claims by GLIB could all be interpreted positively by attorneys leading the challenge to the military ban. “The central issue is whether the government can mandate the content of a privately organized parade” said Veterans Council attorney Chester Darling. The Speak To Your Brothers Project needs your expertise to do IV prevention outreach ^ in the great outdoors. Call Roger NOW ......... to get in on the fun! (503) 223-5907 ext. 130 W : . ¡¡¡¡¡¡g l >;? Ä I® :: Speak Tb Your Brothers is a project o f the HIV Primary Preventio: Services Department at Cascade AIDS Project. 1995_____