EveryBody's Guide to the Law

which the promoters were trying to send. The case involved the South Boston Allied War
Veterans Council, an unincorporated association of individuals elected from various veterans’
groups. The council was authorized by the city of Boston to hold an annual St. Patrick’s Day-
Evacuation Day Parade. The Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual (GLIB) group was organized solely to
march in the parade behind a banner simply stating “Irish American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual
Group of Boston.” The veterans council denied GLIB permission to march in the parade,
because it would be conveying a message that the council did not wish to convey. GLIB contended
that the ban on their presence in the parade violated, among other things, a state law
prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in places of public accommodations.
The case made its way to the United States Supreme Court, which ruled that Massachusetts
law could not force the veterans council to accept a group to march in the parade,
where the group’s message was one that the council did not wish to convey. The Supreme
Court observed that GLIB wanted to make its message part of the parade, rather than an independent,
separate message. The Supreme Court stated that, as a part of the first amendment
right to speech, the speaker has the right to determine what is not said as well as what is said.
HATE CRIMES AGAINST GLBTS
Although crime in general has decreased in the past few years, hate crimes against gays,
lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders have increased dramatically. According to the FBI report
“Crime in the United States in 2002,” crimes committed in 2002 dues to bias against the victim’s
perceived sexual orientation represented almost 17 percent of reported hate crime incidents,
the highest level in the 12 years since the FBI began collecting data on such reports.
This was the third highest category of hate crimes reported to the FBI in 2002, following only
hate crimes based on race and religious beliefs. Since the FBI first began gathering statistics on
hate crimes based on sexual orientation, the number of such crimes tripled from 1991 to 1999
and continues to rise annually. Hate crimes based on sexual orientation accounted for 13.9 percent
of all hate crimes in 2001, and it is believed that such crimes go widely unreported
because of stigmatism and possible reprisal.
Worth mentioning here is the federal Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act, which is
part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which calls for a longer
sentence if it is proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the crime was committed out of hate.
On the average, these tougher sentences result in an enhanced sentence of one-third the time
actually served. However, the Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act applies only to
crimes committed on federal property.
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