{"id":10068,"date":"2017-03-09T17:24:13","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T17:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/politicians-boycott-st-paddys-day-over-anti-gay-decision\/"},"modified":"2017-03-09T17:24:13","modified_gmt":"2017-03-09T17:24:13","slug":"politicians-boycott-st-paddys-day-over-anti-gay-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/politicians-boycott-st-paddys-day-over-anti-gay-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"Politicians boycott St Paddy’s day over anti-gay decision"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"OutVetsImage copyright AP
Image caption Organisers told the group they had violated rules due to the rainbow flag on their logo <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Boston St Patrick's day parade is facing a boycott after organisers decided to bar a gay veterans' group from participating this year.<\/p>\n

City and state politicians announced they will not attend or march after OutVets was told they would be excluded this year.<\/p>\n

The decision came after a 9-4 vote by parade organisers on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

An OutVets representative said the ban was due to the rainbow flag on the group's logo.<\/p>\n

"They said people felt that rainbows represent the gay community," Bryan Bishop, the founder of OutVets, told the New York Times.<\/p>\n

"I told them if that's the case, then every picture of a rainbow in the parade that leads to a pot of gold needs to be removed," Mr Bishop added.<\/p>\n

Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Mayor Walsh said he would boycott the event unless the decision is overturned <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Several sponsors announced that they are withdrawing support for the event, and Budweiser-brewer Anheuser-Busch said it was "evaluating" its participation.<\/p>\n

Politicians across Massachusetts, the first state to legalise same-sex marriage, in 2004, reacted with outrage to the news.<\/p>\n

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh released a short statement saying: "I will not tolerate discrimination in our city in any form."<\/p>\n

He said he would skip the event, and added "anyone who values what our city stands for should do the same".<\/p>\n

Michael Flaherty, a Boston city councillor, called the decision "disgusting" and added that "whoever voted for this is a nitwit".<\/p>\n

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and US Senator Edward Markey have also said they will boycott the parade unless the organisers reverse their decision.<\/p>\n

A member of the parade committee, which is organised by the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council, said the group would hold an emergency meeting on Friday.<\/p>\n

According to the groups' code of conduct, LGBT groups are not banned, but the event does "not allow the advertisement or display of one's sexual orientation as a topic that should in any way be depicted as a theme of our parade".<\/p>\n

OutVets was first permitted to march two years ago, becoming the first LGBT group to march in the Boston parade.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright APImage caption Organisers told the group they had violated rules due to the rainbow flag on their logo The Boston St Patrick's day parade is facing a boycott<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}