One committee member in dissent seeks to challenge the decision

A breakthrough in a decades-long impasse over the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the exclusion of gay and lesbian marchers appears to have been reached last night after a petition by the LGBT veterans organization OUTVETS to march in next year’s parade was approved by a committee of South Boston veterans by a 5-4 vote.

However, at least one member of the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council is disputing the vote’s validity, charging that the full membership of the committee was not on hand for the decision.

“The Supreme Court decision in 1994 still stands,” said Philip J. Wuschke Jr., a past commander of the council who is on the committee and attended last night’s meeting.

“There will be no sexual contents in the parade and that’s where it stands.”

Wuschke contends that there was no quorum at last night’s meeting and because not all members had been notified, it was “an illegal meeting.”

Others, however, are hailing the decision as a clear-cut victory, including Mayor Martin Walsh’s office.

“We’re very pleased that OUTVETS will be marching in this year’s parade. Mayor Walsh has been advocating for an inclusive parade for quite some time,” Kate Norton, Walsh’s spokesperson, said in a statement released late last night. “We’re thrilled to hear that the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council have decided to make the 2015 parade an inclusive event.”

Parade Commander Brian Mahoney, who called himself the “ultimate authority” on what happened at last night’s meeting, confirmed that OUTVETS won majority approval to march in the parade.

“The vote was a matter of discussion. It was an issue that lasted for more than an hour. People had legitimate questions and [Bryan] Bishop was able to answer them to the majority’s satisfaction,” Mahoney said of OUTVETS founder Bryan Bishop, who made a presentation to the veterans council but was not present for the vote of the veterans council.

“The group that gets in here now is a veterans group,” Mahoney said. “They say they have no social or political agenda. Others may want to read or put more into it, but we merely accepted a group of veterans who wanted to march to honor their service and all the veterans.”

Ed Flynn, son of former mayor Raymond L. Flynn, was one of the five votes in favor of the LGBT veterans. Flynn says that the vote — held at the Thomas Fitzgerald VFW Post— was fair and will stand up to scrutiny.

“I voted in favor of the group allowing them to march,” said Flynn, who served as the parade’s chief marshal in 2013. “I just think any veteran, whether they are gay or straight, they served our country and served in military and put themselves in harm’s way. They should be given opportunity to march in the parade.

“We debated it before the vote and some people were for it and some against it. It was a respectful debate,” said Flynn. “I think Brian Mahoney and the South Boston elected officials provided strong leadership on the issue.”

Bishop said Mahoney emerged after the meeting to deliver him the good news: "He said it was a 5-4 vote in favor and that he was the swing vote," said Bishop. "He said ‘your application has been accepted.’"

Bishop said that last night’s meeting of the Allied War Veterans Council was tense at times.

"It was not cordial. I walked out of there and never felt that way before— it was like an interrogation," said Bishop, 46, who works as chief of staff to the city's Commissioner of Veteran Services, Francisco Urena. Bishop is a North Carolina native who now lives in East Boston.

"I pled my case,” he said. “My whole process is not to subvert. OUTVETS is non-political. We marched on Veterans Day and we were embraced by everyone."

Bishop said that the veterans group will not march with anything that explicitly says "LGBT."
"My banner has the colors of the rainbow on one corner," said Bishop. "We are a veteran group."

Earlier this year, OUTVETS became the first LGBT group to march in Boston’s Veteran’s Day Parade.

Wuschke said he expected that those in dissent would consult with the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council’s lawyer. John “Wacko” Hurley, the longtime leader of the council who championed the veterans’ position to deny gay groups entry into the parade in the 1990s, was not present at Monday night’s meeting. Hurley told the Reporter he was sick and missed his first meeting in 50 years.

A similar breakthrough nearly took place last year–when another LGBT group based in South Boston claimed that they had reached an agreement to march with organizers. However, shortly after the news hit the media, parade organizers withdrew their invitation and drew a hard line against a compromise.

Asked is that was likely to happen again this year, Wuschke responded firmly: “Yes.”

Mahoney emphatically disagreed and lamented, “Every year we go through this nonsense.
This is not Brian Mahoney’s parade, not Phil Wuschke’s parade, not Wacko Hurley’s parade. This is a parade put on by the Allied Veterans War Council for the benefit of South Boston.”