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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 21, 1995)
30 ▼ Joly 2 1 ,1 0 0 3 T*Jost out COUNSEL Vacation in Your Own Backyard This Summer! For only $2,000* Not necessarily a defeat Your Own Pool Installed! S w im m in g P o o ls • S p a s B illia rd S e rv ic e • S u p p lie s • A c c e s s o rie s m © \L <®S I The Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade case may prove to be a significant help in our fight for equality C ▼ N by Matt Coles "Out of this world quality" "Down to Earth Prices' 15003 SE Powell Blvd., Portland * Subject to site inspection WHEEL ALIGNMENTS & TIRES (503) 232-3600 2454 E. BURNSIDE • PORTLAND, OR 97214 fam ily Owned & Operated Since 1952 S u r v e y . ; a y t i m e R k m k m i i k r t o s i O \ i > in v o i r r k a d k r ’ s st k \ i ; y i k o m i in: J i i . y 7 issri: 01 Just out Chinese Style Bungalow Craftsman Classic Laurelhurst Bungalow Rich in detail 3916 SE Ankeny $ 1 3 8 ,0 0 0 David Anderson IRISH * A M E R IC A N * I PARIAN » M . RISE B ’Zillion Dollar Club W indermere Cronin & Caplan Realty Group, Inc. 225-1 i 15 • VM 497-5211 • 2078 NW Everett St. • Portland, OR 97209 v:'v; , • 't. ' V s v /. a - M M Finally, the basic principle of the decision will he U.S. Supreme Court recently de help lesbians and gay men. By the time the Boston cided that Irish veterans in Boston parade case got to the Supreme Court, both the may keep a lesbian, gay and bisexual veterans and the Irish lesbian, gay and bisexual Irish group out of the veteran’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Understand group agreed that the parade was not sponsored by the the city. That was critically important. As the ably, many lesbian and gay men assumed ACLU told the court in a “friend of the court” decision was a defeat. However, a close look brief, if the parade were sponsored by the city, the shows that far from being a defeat, the case may first amendment would require that it accept all prove to be a significant help in our fight for messages and allow the gay group to march. equality. But a private parade stands (or strides) on a There are four positive things in the decision. different footing. Here, the question was whether First, the Court said that, generally speaking, laws the government could close the streets to a parade prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual unless its sponsors agreed to accept a message orientation are constitutional. Since this really they did not agree with. If the Supreme Court had was not an issue in the case, the court had to go decided that government could, this new power well out of its way to say that. This part of the would have been used against us far more quickly decision will greatly assist us in defending dis and forcefully than it would have been used crimination laws that protect us against attacks against our opponents. Indeed, in San Diego, a from the radical right. group identifying itself as “Normal People” has Much more subtle, but also helpful, is the already sued for a place in that city’s pride parade, respectful treatment that the court gave the les claiming it is being excluded because of its mem bian, gay and bisexual Irish group, typically refer bers’ sexual orientation. ring to its members as “lesbian, gay and bisexual Some say that the San Diego pride parade is individuals.” The demeaning language of previ different because there the ous decisions involving The question was whether two messages are inconsis lesbians and gay men, and in Boston they were which helped set a tone the government could close tent not. But the real issue is of hostility toward us in the streets to a parade who decides when a mes federal courts generally, is com pletely absent. unless its sponsors agreed sage is inconsistent with the theme of a parade or dem This may help us to be to accept a message they onstration. According to the gin setting a new tone. court, the First Amendment Third, the court said did not agree with. says that decision belongs that by marching behind to the speaker, not to the government. Our own a banner identifying themselves a lesbian or gay, history with government power and its abuse members of the Irish group were making a state should lead us to cheer that conclusion. ment that there are lesbians, gay men and bisexu als among the Irish and that they "have as much The decision of the Boston veterans was stu claim to unqualified social acceptance as hetero pid and cruel— stupid because it defies reality to sexuals.. ..” That is quite close to what the sexual- pretend that there aren’t Irish lesbians, gay men minority-rights movement itself has been saying and bisexuals, and cruel to maintain the pretense in the face of real humans who want to join the for years. Coming out of the closet is a political act, which makes the statement that we are every celebration. We should try to convince them to change that decision. where and that we are entitled to equal treatment. This decision lays the foundation for a free But if anyone should understand that it is a bad dom of speech defense for anyone who suffers at idea to use the coercive power of government to the hands of government for coming out or for shape what a person wants to say, it is our commu being openly gay. The statement that it is impor nity. The success of our movement depends on tant for every lesbian or gay man to come out is persuasion. We need the unfettered right to speak our movement’s first great truism. We keep hear and to shape our messages. ing it because, relatively speaking, so few of us Matt Coles is the national director o f the have been able to come out. The parade decision American Civil Liberties Union s Lesbian and may make it easier, by giving some legal protec Gay Rights Project. tion to those who do. T
