ACLU files suit
over city paradeProtests over exclusion of
gays threaten the event,
a group says
The Hawaii Christian Coalition's leader says the group will cancel a Kid's Parade if the American Civil Liberties Union wins a federal lawsuit to allow three gay advocacy groups to march in the event next Saturday.
In a suit filed yesterday, the ACLU argues that the parade cannot discriminate against homosexuals because it is part of a city "Family Day Festival" and that city personnel and funds are being used to organize and run the parade.
"Because it's a city event, you can't exclude people based on the content of their message," said Brent White, the ACLU legal director. "If this is a private event, there's a lot of taxpayer money that has been abused, and it should be returned to the taxpayers."
Garret Hashimoto, president of the Hawaii Christian Coalition, said that if the ACLU wins at a hearing Tuesday afternoon in federal court, the parade will not be held.
"We want this parade to have children to have a role model to look up to, and I don't believe the gay lifestyle fits that description," Hashimoto said.
He said the city is only sponsoring the family festival, and the parade itself is a private function.
"They have their own parade," Hashimoto said, referring to the Gay Pride Parade through Waikiki today. "They asked the city for the Royal Hawaiian Band, and they got it. How are they being discriminated against? They're the ones that are asking for special privileges from the city."
Hashimoto said the Kid's Parade is like the Kamehameha Day and Okinawan Festival parades and that the city is not doing any more for their group than it does for any other.
"We feel we are being discriminated against because we are Christians," Hashimoto said.
City spokeswoman Carol Costa e-mailed a response saying that the "ACLU lawsuit has no merit."
The lawsuit alleges that the Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays; the Center; and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transsexual Family Network applied for permission to march in the parade but were denied because of the Hawaii Christian Coalition's religious belief that homosexuality is immoral.
The city's Web site and city fliers advertising the parade invited the public to "Join the Parade" and stated, "Everyone is welcome to join this parade," the lawsuit states.
"We wish to join the parade in celebration of gay and lesbian families, just as other families are allowed to join the parade," said Michael Golojuch Jr., project coordinator of Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays of Oahu.
White said city officials helped plan the parade on city time, and applications for the parade were available by calling city phone numbers, which shows the parade is not a private function.
White said if the coalition wanted to have a private parade without city sponsorship and exclude homosexuals, the ACLU would defend their right to hold the parade.
"We've defended people more distasteful than that in terms of outright bigotry," White said. "They're entitled to their belief, but they are not entitled to have that belief spread at the expense of taxpayers and enforced by the city of Honolulu."