My City Councillor, the Bigot

As reported in the Globe, a group gathered at Farragut House on P Street to celebrate the tenth anniversary of US Supreme Court's decision to allow the South Boston St. Patrick's Day Parade organizers to block an Irish-American gay and lesbian group from marching.

The celebration was led by Joseph R. Nolan, the retired Supreme Judicial Court justice who cast the lone dissenting vote when the Massachusetts court ruled against the parade organizers; John ''Wacko" Hurley, the parade's organizer, who had 9-0, signifying the US Supreme Court's unanimous ruling, imprinted on his business cards; Councilor James M. Kelly of South Boston; Chester Darling, the lawyer who fought the case; and Eleanor Hulak, the grand marshal of the 1993 parade, the second year the gay group was banned. As Donovan Slack writes:

Several members of the group said that if another gay rights group wanted to march in next year's parade, they would still fight all the way to the Supreme Court to keep it out. ''The principles that held true then still hold true today," Kelly said. ''I have such tremendous admiration for the people sitting at this table."

It's one thing to have the constitutional right to be a bigot--it's another thing to admire them. I for one am glad Councillor Kelly has a challenger this fall.