Rep. Stephen Lynch thinks he can resolve the Southie St. Patrick’s Day parade dispute
Rep. Stephen Lynch — a born-and-raised South Boston resident himself — thinks he can resolve the discord resulting from a decision to ban a gay veterans group from participating in the neighborhood’s St. Patrick’s Day parade.
“I’m going to try to resolve this, that’s my position,” Lynch said in an interview Wednesday with Boston Herald Radio. “I think I will be able to.”
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The dispute began after parade organizers, the Allied War Veterans Council of South Boston, voted 9-to-4 on Tuesday to ban the gay veterans group OUTVETS from marching in the parade. The decision sparked broad political backlash, with Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Gov. Charlie Baker, and others pledging to boycott the March 19 parade if OUTVETS remained banned.
The Boston Globe reports that parade organizers say they are standing by their decision following a meeting Wednesday evening. Dan Magoon, a Boston firefighter and combat veteran, resigned as parade marshal Wednesday, according to the Globe.
“There’s no reason for this,” Lynch said Wednesday. “These young men and women serve this country and they have a right to march like every other veteran.”
Not necessarily, according to a 1995 Supreme Court decision.
In an unanimous ruling, the court said organizers were within their First Amendment rights to exclude groups expressing a message with which they disagreed.
However, for the first time in 2015 and at Walsh’s urging, the Allied War Veterans Council invited OUTVETS, as well as Boston Pride, to march in the parade. The two LGBT groups also participated in 2016.
Lynch said Tuesday’s reversal — reportedly due to organizers objections to groups’ use of a rainbow flag — is “disheartening.”
“If I can’t resolve it, I regret that I cannot accept the invitation to march,” he said.
Lynch attributed to decision to “just a few individuals” and, speaking from Washington, D.C., said he would work to resolve it as soon as possible.
“I will get on this as soon as I possibly can and try to ferret out the problem and resolve it, and have it so that the OUTVETS are not only allowed to march, but are welcome to march,” he said.
