February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
During a recent mayoral forum in Dorchester sponsored by a gay and lesbian activists group (Dot Out), Mayor Thomas Menino angrily lashed out at a supporter of his chief rival who accused him of playing both sides of the fence in the perennial St. Patrick’s Day parade controversy.
Menino has never marched in the parade since assuming office in 1993 because the parade organizers, the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council, exclude the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston from the event.
In June 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision that the veterans had a first amendment right to exclude “any group imparting a message the organizers do not want to convey.”
For his continual refusal to march, Menino has earned plaudits and political capital from the city’s gay activists and from the Boston Globe.
But at Dorchester forum, David Breen, a law professor and supporter of Menino’s chief rival, City Councilor Michael Flaherty, told the group that Menino has had it both ways by working the sidelines of the parade and attending numerous house parties along the parade route.
“That’s a lie,” Menino reportedly yelled from the back of the room when Breen made the accusation.
“It was pretty intimidating to have the mayor of the city of Boston in a bellowing voice moving toward me…calling me a liar,” Breen told reporters after the event.
Menino does attend the St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast in South Boston, and he is often seen at house parties that day all over South Boston.
Flaherty marches in the parade.
A Flaherty spokesperson told the Echo that the 40-year-old city councilor has been marching in the parade since he was a 10-month-old infant on the shoulders of his father.
Menino has been mayor of Boston for the past 16 years, having succeeded Ray Flynn, who became U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican.