The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts today is reacting with skepticism to claims by Brian Mahoney, Commander of the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council—the organizers of Boston’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade—that the veterans, in approving the application to march of Boston Pride, were actually unaware that it was one of the state’s leading homosexual advocacy organizations.
In a column in the March 19th SOUTHBOSTONTODAY, portions of which were quoted in yesterday’s Boston Herald, Mahoney asserted that Boston Pride misrepresented themselves on their application as a “social organization with volunteers of Irish descent,” and that the veterans “innocently believed they were an offshoot of Boston Strong,” which was formed in response to the Marathon bombings.
The Catholic Action League called Mahoney’s contention “beyond disingenuous, something more on the order of the-dog-ate-the-homework.”
Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J. Doyle made the following comment: “Brian Mahoney, who seems to have a utilitarian view of telling the truth, is insulting the intelligence of the people of Boston with his meretricious disavowals. For twenty-three years, homosexual activists tried to force their way into the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade. Last December, under pressure from Mayor Martin Walsh, Mahoney and four others threw away a 9 to 0 Supreme Court decision and let them in. Now, he would have us believe he didn’t know that the organizers of Boston’s gay pride parade were homosexuals.”
“To accept Mahoney’s absurdly improbable claims, one would have to believe that no one on the veterans council watched television, listened to the radio, read newspapers, or talked to anyone living in Massachusetts. While no one should discount the duplicity of the groups which tried to strong-arm their way into the parade—they reinvented themselves several times—Mahoney’s claim is a bridge too far.”
“Brian Mahoney is the successor of the legendary John J. ‘Wacko’ Hurley, whose courage and tenacity gave us Hurley v. GLIB. Mahoney bears less resemblance, in his principles and in his speech, to Hurley than to the comedic figure of Sergeant Shultz, who always knew, saw, and heard nothing.”
