Dan Magoon, who heads an organization to honor and support Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families, today quit his honorary position as head of the South Boston St. Patrick's Day parade after its organizers voted to bar a gay veterans group from the procession.
Mayor Walsh also said this morning he will not march in the parade if the votes stands.
In a message to the board of the Allied War Veterans Council this morning, Magoon, founder of Massachusetts Fallen Heroes, explained his decision to step down as chief marshal:
I have worked hard over the years to support returning Veterans and their families. We have fought battles across this City, State and Country in regards to Veterans rights, benefits, employment, mental health, discriminatory practices, and many other significant areas important to our Veterans. To be a part of a parade excluding OutVets does not coincide with the work I do advocating for all Veterans.
The severity that this decision weighs not only negatively impacts OutVets, but also the families of Veterans, thus crating a ripple effect across our community.
I wish the parade success. The freedoms that we possess to hold such an event is due to the men and women who have spilled their blood in defense to this great nation, regarless of where they come from, what they look like, or who they share relations with.
OutVets had marched in the 2015 and 2016 parades after years of being barred from the parade.. The Globe reports the council voted 9-4 to bar them again.
In a statement this morning, Mayor Walsh said:
I will not tolerate discrimination in our city of any form. We are one Boston, which means we are a fully inclusive city. I will not be marching in the parade unless this is resolved. Anyone who values what our city stands for should do the same.
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Comments
its a shame
By Scumquistador
Wed, 03/08/2017 - 2:10pm
that your mother was seemingly pro life as well
He was busy running the
By bulgingbuick
Wed, 03/08/2017 - 2:51pm
City.
you might want to check those "facts" you throw around...
By bandit
Wed, 03/08/2017 - 3:14pm
there was no pro-life ban at the women's march. there were actually a decent number of pro-life women marching. there are photos of this, and first person accounts. it actually happened.
what i think you are referencing is that the women's march briefly had the group New Wave Feminists as a sponsor of the march, and then dropped them. the theory was that the basic beliefs of NWF was incompatible with the stated values and principles of the march. these values included:
the march dropped them as a sponsor and apologized for including them, and reiterated their support to pro-choice options and reproductive freedom for women.
so they weren't banned. they were dropped as a sponsor, which is incredibly different.
WHAT THE ...?
By A.S.M.
Fri, 03/10/2017 - 9:39am
Fringe group? Veterans who served our nation honorable and valiantly, risking their lives for our freedoms? You call that a fringe group? These are Americans worthy of all the rights and protections of every other American citizen.
Cambridge St. Patrick's Day Parade.
By theszak
Wed, 03/08/2017 - 1:59pm
Bring back the Cambridge St. Patrick's Day Parade!
The Cambridge St. Patricks Day Parade was suspended
By bulgingbuick
Wed, 03/08/2017 - 2:55pm
as it was an affront to snakes. According to unsubstantiated history, snakes were driven from Ireland by the vehemently anti-snake St. Patrick.
Semper Fi
By bulgingbuick
Wed, 03/08/2017 - 2:49pm
Big Red!
Southie State Rep Nick
By Rob Not Verified
Wed, 03/08/2017 - 3:03pm
Southie State Rep Nick Collins has said he won't march either if they exclude OutVets. The dam has broken.
http://www.facebook.com/repnickcollins/posts/10155...
Poor Nick. Even when he doesn't do something no one
By bulgingbuick
Wed, 03/08/2017 - 4:05pm
notices...
That's a shock
By me
Wed, 03/08/2017 - 11:23pm
Nick has happily walked in the parade for years..
Revenge is best served cold
By anon
Wed, 03/08/2017 - 3:11pm
They may bar gays from the parade but they can't stop them from buying up all the property in South Boston.
To Dan and Marty
By Stephen Bickerton Sr
Wed, 03/08/2017 - 4:24pm
You guys got balls. Good for you 2. SEMPER FI !!!!!!!!!!
Even the Stop & Shop is pulling out
By adamg
Wed, 03/08/2017 - 7:40pm
NBC Boston has the latest: The South Boston Stop & Shop will no longer sponsor the parade and neither will the Dedham Savings Bank. And Anheuser Busch is pissed.
Typo?
By anon
Thu, 03/09/2017 - 9:38am
Should be Anheuser Busch is piss.
But seriously folks, this anti gay stuff has got to stop.
Council: We don't care, no gays
By adamg
Wed, 03/08/2017 - 8:25pm
The Globe reports that even as sponsors, politicians and their own chief marshal drop out, the council that runs the parade voted again tonight to keep OutVets out.
Welp
By lbb
Thu, 03/09/2017 - 11:21am
It's their hill to die on, I guess.
But they don't own the streets and they use them for their parade by permission. It will take more integrity than I think our politicians have at present, but Just Saying No to the parade is always an option.
End the parade until a more responsible organization can run it
By Ron Newman
Wed, 03/08/2017 - 9:16pm
No other neighborhood or town parade get embroiled in this controversy year after year. Not Roslindale, not Dorchester, not Charlestown, not East Boston or the North End (which alternate having a Columbus Day parade), not Somerville, not Arlington, not Lexington ....
They don't ban Gays; they just hate fags.
By Daan
Wed, 03/08/2017 - 9:25pm
Item 5 from their Rules and Regulations:
They don't ban groups based on sexual orientation. But they ban Outvets for no other reason than the fact that they exist as a group because 1) they are veterans, 2) make clear they are veterans and 3) as the reason for being a group is that they are also Gay.
Are they displaying their sexual orientation? How does one display sexual orientation? Probably through sex. So if the Outvets are not having sex on the street they are not displaying their sexual orientation.
The event is focused on religious, cultural and historical themes. Perhaps cultural can include the Hollywood fantasy Star Wars characters that march as a group; however Star Wars fantasy figures are veterans in fantasy only. They have no connection to being a veteran except perhaps for celebrating war.
Gay culture however, as represented by Gay veterans, combines a cultural theme along with the theme of military veterans. For the organizers then to include a non-veteran group that is "cultural" only (which opens them up lots of other cultural themes) but to exclude a veterans group which wants to let people know they are also Gay (a cultural concept as much as biological) then the organizers are just plain ugly, gross hypocrites. The sort of people that their own deity would thrown into Purgatory for a couple of thousand years.
What is with the conflagration of a religious event and a political-historical event? The two do not go together. If this was a parade solely about Irish Catholicism then perhaps they can make a legitimate point of exclusion. I would not want to join Italian Catholic parades as part of a Gay group (well, perhaps as a Knight of the Society of St. Sebastian). But the parade is also about a historical and political event.
Evacuation Day remembers an event that was at the heart of politics; it was about who will have political authority and power. It was an act of civil war between the British colonies against at the time their lawful government. So to celebrate Evacuation Day is to celebrate an event of a political theme. They then can not argue that they exclude any political theme if that they game they want to play.
The parade organizers can throw as many words as they want to create a smokescreen. What is boils down to is that in the vote 9 people said they hate fags.
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