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South End club drops Sam Adams over South Boston parade

UPDATE, Friday a.m.: Sam Adams drops sponsorship of the parade.

Club Cafe on Columbus Avenue says it is dropping Sam Adams for its decision to continue sponsoring the St. Patrick's Day parade in South Boston.

In a post on its Facebook page, its owners say they'll resume sales of the beer when either LGBT groups are allowed to march openly in the parade or the Boston Beer Co. stops sponsoring the parade.

It is hard to understand how a community like Boston, where Gay members of the Police force, military and others have, and continue to, put there lives on the line for ALL BOSTONIAN's, that organizers of The St.Patrick's Day Parade feel it is just to discriminate against us as a community, and that Sam Adams does not take seriously the impact that their support of bigotry will have on their relationship to the LGBT community and their business.

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Comments

It's time to hit the haters and their enablers where it hurts, in this case by refusing to sell or buy Sam Adams. Their sponsorship of the parade is peculiar, since most of the drunks watching the parade are drinking the cheap stuff anyway.

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There is nothing bigoted about vets position. They simply have consistently stated that no protests or political advocacy that they deem takes away from the parade message of supporting our vets is allowed. When the gay vets asked to march they were immediately told yes. Then they said they want to carry banners calling themselves gay vets. The council said no because they felt it was too political given recent change in don't ask don't tell policy and would end up being focus instead of simply honoring our vets. This process has gone on for years. LGBT groups have been denied, prolife organizations have been denied, IRA sympathizer shave been denied, Lyndon Larouchers and their Obama with a Hitler mustache signs have been denied (although they routinely jump in where they can and are thrown out by police). Hundreds of parade applications have been denied because they would take away from the theme. Few are LGBT apps.

To anyone considering boycotting companies that sponsor the parade. Ask why the gay vet group first accepted the offer to march along with mass equality. Then they rescinded on the deal and instead demanded to change the agreement they just spent a few days putting together. Then ask yourself who is being unreasonable.

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You have posted the biggest pile of steaming poo on this subject that I've seen in the last few weeks. Almost nothing you said is true.

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This is the 20th Anniversary of the time Wacko et al. cancelled the parade rather than comply with a court order that required parade organizers to admit gay marchers, 1994.

Last year, Boston taxpayers ponied up $300,000 for the parade.

Why should taxpayers be on the hook when our gay neighbors are barred from participating?

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of Wacko and the council prevailing in the US Supreme Court. Last year Boston taxpayers ponied up millions of dollars protecting the free speech rights of many parades and events throughout the city. Why should taxpayers be on the hook for anyone's exercise of free speech and expression?
If you are going to advocate for a position come up with stronger arguments. Not agreeing with someone doesn't take away their right to control their message.

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Sure hasn't taken away from the parade message at all!

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If the South Boston Veterans are so bad, why is it that district's new African American senator Linda Forry and Congressman Stephen Lynch and a long list of other politicians who say they may boycott the parade, showed up at the annual Chief Parade Marshal's/Allied War Veteran's banquet last week and heaped praise and applause on Wacko Hurley and the rest of the parade organization? They were even presenting them with awards. There is a full account; with photos in this week's South Boston Today newspaper.

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Are you seriously arguing they can't be that bad because POLITICIANS seem okay with them?!

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Pay attention. I'm ticked because these pols say one thing to the press and something completely different when in front of the Southie Veterans.

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that stuff you been smoking. And licking whatever it is that you have been licking.

Your derangement is more entertainingly pathetic than irritating.

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You just cant help yourself Scoobie, can you? Her name is Linda Dorcena-Forry and the fact that she's "African American" has nothing to do with this. She's actually Haitian American but that distinction is probably something you don't comprehend. I noticed you don't call Steve Lynch an Irish American senator.

This weeks South Boston Today print edition is not online yet, and the website has no mention of the banquet, but I highly doubt that Senator Dorcena-Forry "heaped praise" on Wacko. " Shame on her if she did. "A long list of other politicians that say they may boycott the parade"... I doubt it. I look forward to seeing the article when it appears online.

As far as Stevie Lynch, I wouldn't put anything past him. He's basically a Republican posing as a Democrat.

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And you libs would be crying racist if he called her black. Guy made a mistake, get it through your enlightened head. Hope your this passionate when the parade that people get savagely murded at comes around later this year.

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Murdered* pardon my spelling mistake before you dopes use an error to discredit my opinion and call me a herald reader. But I assume you enlightened folk could grasp what I was getting at.

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Foxtard.

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Hope "you're" feelings weren't hurt too badly, anon.

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If I can be called white then why can't someone be called black? Neither are technically correct, but both are convenient for a quick description. Shall we use brown & peach instead?

People need to stop being so overly sensitive.

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Scoobie is just making things up. I just read the article he mentioned. See pages 22-23 of the pdf.

http://southbostontoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/FULL_South_Boston...

Yeah, Dorcena Forry was there, but no reference to her "praising Wacko", as Scoobie alleges. Maybe she did, but it's not in the article.

And there's no "long list of politicians who have said they may boycott the parade", as alleged by Scoobie. Besides Dorcena Forry and Lynch, the only other politicians mentioned are Linehan, Collins, Roache, and Raybo . None of them have said they will boycott the parade. Linehan is running away to Limerick so he wont have to endure Dorcena Forry hosting the Lunch. I guess that's considered boycotting the parade

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Actually Linda Dorcena Forry is Haitian American, not African American.

I'm a Boston Beer Co. stock holder but I am very sympathetic to Club Cafe's decision to drop Sam Adams for the time being.

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. . . as if Columbus and his Conquistador crew didn't kill off the original Caribe population of Hispaniola and it wasn't resettled by slavery from . . . Africa.

We have "African-Americans" here in the USA, what makes them "African" and immigrants whose ancestors stopped in Haiti not "African?"

DNA don't lie.

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Because "African-American" refers to a particular group of cultural traditions, not to any person of African ancestry.

"Black" refers to anyone in the US descended from African peoples.

"Haitian-American" refers to people in the US whose people most recently came from Haiti. Obviously.

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Not only am I supposed to know everyone's racial origin - I need to know their genealogy as well.

Ouch - my European American head is going to explode.

Oops - you should all know that I'm German and only refer to me as German American (with a smattering of other stuff - don't forget the smattering)

Not white, not Caucasian, not European American, not peach, just German American - with a smattering.

You know what? I'm fine with just plain old American.

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How did you not know her nationality by her last name? I mean it's so obvious.... Look at Shaquille O'Neal and Tracy McGrady, both Irish lads.... Right?

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The human race originated in Africa. So what if my ancestors stopped in Denmark and Germany. I'm African!

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Club Snub will bankrupt Sam Adams!

Heterosexuals might retaliate by boycotting Club Cafe'.

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Hint: it is somebody who is straight but usually has more than a few gay friends that they care about and support and will go to bat for when it comes to those who think it is an "us" against "them" stupidity festival.

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"Family" friendly dates back before the politically correct lexicon was engineered. I made the boycott comment as a joke. One year I even rode my motorcycle in the pride parade with one of my three lesbian housemates on the back. Afterwards, we visited Club Cafe and Esme'. I've actually never been to the Southie parade or much wanted to, and don't really care if they do or don't want marchers waving rainbow flags. MassEquality probably wouldn't care about the parade either, if it weren't for being told they can't make a big, gay display of themselves. How many fourth of July and Veterans' Day parades have their supposed vets marched in in previous years? Seems like they only want to march in this one for being rejected.

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Heterosexuals might retaliate by boycotting Club Cafe'.

Hopefully some will. The place has been overrun by drunk bachelorette parities lately.

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I think you're confusing Club Cafe with Jacques. Now that place has definitely been overrun by the straight bachelorette parties!

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I like Sam. I didn't know they were a sponsor of the parade.

I won't be buying Sam until they stop sponsoring the parade or the parade allows gays to march.

Looks like their boycott is having the intended effect on this straight guy.

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I'm glad Sam Adams has pulled its sponsorship for now. Utopias for everyone!

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The parade's official website sponsor page is broken. "We're updating our supporters" presumably should be "We can't keep up with number the companies that are abandoning us rather than have their corporate brands tarnished by the organizers' bigotry."

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Here is the sponsors web page from 2013.

Also, here is the http://www.samueladams.com/contact-us

It would be nice to take this list of sponsors and contact each one to confirm if they are still sponsoring or not. Anyone interested?

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Good for them - I hope more venues join them.

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I didn't realize Sam Adams was sponsoring the parade, but I guess I should have. With that being said, I'm personally boycotting Sam Adams until they pull funding and denounce this stupid bullshit. There's no reason to support this kind of bigotry unless you are somewhat of a bigot yourself, and there's no reason to funnel my beer budget through a company to support this position.

I sent an email saying essentially that through their online contact page. I think a wider boycott of companies might gain some more traction for the issue.

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A gay friend just sent this information to both Towleroad and JoeMyGod. Fun to see this go viral.

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Yeah your tumblr activism will soon bring Sam Adams to their knees.

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They got a zillion messages when this went viral and pulled out?

My, you must feel so ... dumb.

Brave new world darling - get with it or get lost.

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Sam Adams is mostly mediocre these days. There are many other local breweries doing better stuff that need patronizing.

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I'm not a Sam Adams drinker but looks like I'm going to start to drink it! The Gay community has its own parade in the South End every year, why is it that it is such a big deal all of the sudden that it needs to have a gay group marching in the St. Patricks parade. There has never been a gay group marching in the parade and all of the sudden it needs one?

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But do make a youtube video. We'll all want to watch when it turns out to be too strong for you to handle.

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Hey loather. You lack of awareness of the history of this issue is amusing as your false claim that you will start drinking Sam.

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you lack awareness that your run-on sentence confuses people when they try and read it.

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This isn't "all of a sudden" clearly you have no idea what's been going on for 20+ years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurley_v._Irish-American_Gay,_Lesbian,_and_...

It was Mayor Walsh that made this a big deal again. Menino stopped marching in 95 after the court ruling. The issue was pushed aside for many years and pretty much ignored until Walsh started talking about it again.

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Clearly I have. No one cares that your gay. If you want to march in a parade march in the one in the South End every year. Menino was a moron and can't believe he held office for that long. This parade isn't about gays and their rights at all. Why would someone want to march in a parade they are not wanted in in the first place. If your gay, good for you, have fun in the South End.

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Where is the outrage over the grocer's apostrophe?

That's what's really disturbing in the Club Cafe's statement.

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Everyone needs to calm down and so making this a big issue. The parade also supports veterans. So your cause is more important than that? Not everyone is going to agree with you on every subject. Get over it.

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Supports veterans as long as they aren't Gay Veterans

Supports Veterans as long as they aren't Veterans for Peace

Supports Veterans as long as they are closed-minded good ol' boys dedicated to behaving like junior high school cliques.

Let's face it: this parade organizing group supports nothing but their own stupid narrow-minded view of the world and their personal bank accounts and in-club buddies. They should not be allowed to hold an event on public property with public security support. If they want their little clubby "Catholic" "Irish" event, they should hold it on the running track at BC High - private property, private funds for privately hired security details. Then the city should let the general public organize a secular, inclusive Evacuation Day Parade without exclusion.

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It's not the Evacuation Day parade, it's the St. Patrick's Day parade. It's held on a Sunday, not the Monday that is the Evacuation Day holiday.

You can't seem to be able to get your head around the idea of a non-official, non-state approved demonstration.

By all means, go and organize an Evacuation Day parade for the holiday.

I am buying a case of Sam to support freedom of expression. This gay group tried to muscle in 20 years ago with white-shoe lawyers drooling to beat up Southie. They lost 9 - 0 in the Supreme Court in a great victory for freedom.

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Congrats on reducing freedom of expression down to the ability to exclude a class of people from participating in society. Very Jeffersonian.

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All that the group of gay marchers in question, who are also Irish Catholic and wish to celebrate their heritage, are doing is to assert their rights to celebrate their heritage the way everybody else, both in and outside of Southie, by marching in the St. Patrick's Day Parade. It's not so terrible, and one doesn't have to be from Southie, or even just reside in Southie as a newcomer (I admit that I don't live in Southie, nor am I from there, btw.), to see that.

How many more sponsors will drop the regular St. Patrick's Day Parade before the organizers begin to see the light and come to their senses?

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are they more like Hollywood Jews, Italian mobsters, dumb Poles or maybe cheap Dutch? By the way most veterans don't feel the need to self identify but in general, and we all seem to love generalizations, most non veterans are clueless to this.

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Right. They're supporting their own stupid, narrow-minded view of the world when really, they should be supporting YOUR stupid narrow-minded view of the world.

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I'm enjoying a cold snap as I type this!

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It is not only tastier and fresher, it is actually brewed in Boston.

They serve it at their brewery tap room - which is in South Boston and employs a fair number of local people.

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This parade is really a private even. The parade organizers have decided (for better or worse) that they will not allow any advocacy marchers. So South Boston Veterans for Peace (as well as South Boston Veterans for War) are not allowed to march as an organizations advocating peace (or war).
However, veterans of all political persuasions can march as individuals.The parade organizers have concluded that allowing gays to march as a group is advocating gay rights. This is a controversial conclusion to say the least. However, should any private event be allowed to set rules around who can attend? Does the gov't or Uhub have a right to vet who attends your next backyard barbecue?

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[edited to put the content back in]
A "private" event on public streets with all members of the public welcome to attend, though not march. BPD details. Who pays for those?

I still won't attend; won't take my daughter, and will continue to wait for the dinosaurs of the AWVs to die off.

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I will always fly out to SF to visit friends during this "parade".

- The Original SoBo Yuppie!

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"and will continue to wait for the dinosaurs of the AWVs to die off."
Very respectful.... Referring to a group of individuals who have experienced events that most could never endure.
I'm sure your daughter would have noticed that gay rights groups weren't marching, ruining the event for her.
Long after those "dinosaurs" are gone; there will still be people hammered, peeing in the alleys, fighting in the streets, and also those that appear to be in a zombie like state.
Those are the reasons I wouldn't have my child at the parade.

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It is possible to be both a veteran and a bigot. One is honorable, the other is not, and calling your event private does nothing to change that.

I will thank you for your service to our country while continuing to point out that your homophobia is ignorant, hateful, wrong. Stop trying to drape your bigotry with the flag.

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Yes. If my backyard event causes everyone's street to be shutdown. I pay a crap load of taxes to drive on the streets of South Boston. I'd like to drive my BMW this Sunday but I can't because of a "private" event(?)

This event is anything but private

Go LGBT! Go Linda Dorcena Forry! Go New Boston! Bye, bye Old Boston!

The Original SoBo Yuppie!

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You know what, I'm totally on board with your argument as long as your backyard barbeque doesn't start marching down my street, requiring public police details and shutting down public roads that I would ordinarily use to get my daily to-do's done! Your backyard party doesn't impact me at all. The parade, however, private as it wants to pretend it is, is very public. Public streets are closed, public resources are needed (police, mbta). So I'm totally okay with you inviting whoever you want to your house party and banning whoever you don't want. But as soon as it becomes a community event, I'm not okay with being exclusive. You can call it a private event, but it's not.

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Should the parade even be a private event? It didn't start that way. And why is a St. Patricks Day Parade about war veterans anyway? It seems crazy. Why not transfer the organization of the parade to a non patrician, non profit that can just run it as a fun cultural event/holiday/city event for everyone just like firstnight, 4th of july and other city events. Let whatever gays, stormtroopers, spongebob, and Vets all march down the street together.

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was a Christian saint. So why does a veteran's organization have a monopoly on the Boston parade? The South Boston Veterans group claims it's about honoring Ireland and vets. But not necessarily. They are just piggy backing the military angle onto a saint's day.

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I know I am in the minority here...but is the gay community "stirring up the pot" calling it "hate", and such?

There are already gay people in the parade.

The organizers just don't want any sexualization of the parade. Wether someone is gay or straight has nothing to do with the parade.

I would imagine they would ban the "divorced irish mothers of America" in the parade as well.

Does it mean they are "hateful" to divorced mothers?

Gay people don't really want to march in a St. Patricks Day parade...they just want to force the issue and demonize anyone who disagrees.

Funny thing is...if they LET them march....the group would march for one year, and then forget all about it.

It's all about forcing other to fall in line with you politically....

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Homosexuality is an aberration. It's a naturally occurring aberration which should not be criminalized or legally disabled, but still it's an aberration.

It probably serves some mysterious evolutionary purpose and is largely genetic. Still, there was a Harvard professor some years ago who said that there were a lot of people who could swing either way based on their genes.

Whether it's a good thing that more people in that middle group would be gay, I am not sure. There is a higher level of disease pathology among male homosexuals, starting with HIV and Hep. More social acceptance and a downplaying of the health realities of things like anal sex would swing more men to the gay side. Studies show women are more bisexual anyways.

It's a natural impulse to try to win social acceptance for your group, but there is another side to the story and it's not without factual support.

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Sorry, Charlie, but your definition is a big fail. Is being left-handed an "aberration"?
What about having blue colored eyes? You can pick and choose whatever doesn't fit
your "normal" criteria. See how that works? And I'll skip your statement about "disease pathology"
and move onto the "swinging more men to the gay side". That means what exactly?
Suddenly, there is going to be a vast tide of coming out events in South Boston once a
group of LGBT Veterans marches by? I doubt it. But it may well cause some families to have
meaningful conversations and that's a good thing - and not an "aberration".

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what is the biological purpose of male orgasm and ejaculation?

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Must be boring.

Either that or you seem to have figured out how to use your hands and mouth for other than their optimal biological purposes.

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that this joker has to be trolling.

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They've been brewing swill for decades. I can drink beer from IPA to stout by the dozens and haven't had a decent Sam yet, with the slight exception of Noble Pils.
It's gawdawful.

Good riddance to i!

And to the gays? More power to you but you're better off staying miles away. What a shitshow the parade is and that's not on Jacko. the real idiots are the ones staggering down Broadway looking for cabs and not holding their liquor.

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Hippies who think they're special because they drink craft beer are almost more annoying than gay veterans who want to display their homosexuality in a catholic parade just to prove a point. It's like if a group of blacks wanted to take part in the next KKK march or that group of gays who want to join a sorority. You can be a part of society but you can't be a part of everything. Get over it and keep working on issues that matter like gay marriage and the bullying and ostracism of gay kids.

Young people these days don't give a shit about sexual orientation or race. Wait for all the old bigots to die and in the meantime stop whining about it

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This parade is supposedly about veterans and Irish heritage (I've been to the parade - and I can't ever recall it being overtly catholic, but catholicism is PART of local Irish heritage).

it would be nice if everyone could march and simply celebrate their heritage and military service without adding this extra layer of identification - but It matters because LGBT individuals are still ostracized in our society - and some are ALSO Irish, some are ALSO military vets - and they can't change who they are - it's not like someone can just turn off being gay. It's important that they march because they are PART of these groups, and being gay has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with personal ideology - this parade is about HERITAGE and MILITARY SERVICE and there are gay people who fall into both of these categories.

btw - The St. Patrick's day festival in Dublin allows LGBT groups BECAUSE THEY'RE IRISH.

http://www.neontommy.com/news/2013/03/dublin-s-st-pat-s-parade-more-lgbt...

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They just want to prove a point? What, that they are members of society just like everyone else and should be treated as such? Just that point?

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Also, since the St. Patrick's Day Parade is a celebration of Irish heritage, the members of the GLBT group who are Irish-Catholic also want to celebrate their heritage, and they're also fighting for the rights to do that, as well.

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Does this mean Cafe Columbus won't accept Benjamin Franklin"s. Yeah right.

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Did you try to think again?

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the smoke coming from your troll worn keyboard.

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http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2014/03/12/gay-married-and...

Gay, married, and perfectly content to let Saint Patrick have his day

I am a gay professional married woman who has no idea why gay activists are
insisting on marching in the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in South Boston.
From my perspective, it should be about Saint Patrick.

If you are gay, and want to march in a band or sing Irish
songs, you should be able to do so without expecting a sign around your
neck that says “Gay Irish Singer.”

For Saint Anthony’s Feast in the North End, people of all colors and creeds come to celebrate Saint Anthony and eat great food.

The Boston Pride Parade is about being gay and encompasses the
spectrum of folks from every walk of life who celebrate being lesbian,
gay, bisexual, or transgender. The parade is defined by gay pride.

The Saint Patrick’s Day Parade is defined by Saint Patrick. End of Subject.

Fran Zaia
Amesbury

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Very well put, Fran. Thanks Lou!

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Boston College has some very large open spaces available for a march and celebration.

I'm sure private details for security could be hired out of private funds for that.

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