Samuel Adams Brewery Sides With Gays Pulls Out of Parade and Heineken Out of NY Parade
After its support of the South Boston St. Patrick's Day Parade led one Boston restaurant to boycott its brew, the Boston Beer Company – which manufactures Sam Adams – has pulled its sponsorship from Sunday's parade.
Club Café, in the South End, had announced it would not serve the company's beer because of the ongoing controversy over the exclusion of openly gay individuals from marching in the parade.
"This is about equal rights. Everyone is equal in this country," said Club Café owner Frank Ribaudo, who said the restaurant got thousands of hits and messages of support on its Facebook page after the boycott was announced.
After the sponsorship was pulled, the restaurant said it will continue to sell Sam Adams.
"As a result of this (decision) we are again proud to serve Sam Adams and Boston Beer Company Products," Club Café said in a statement on its Facebook page.
Boston Beer Company said that it is disappointed that an agreement could not be reached between the gay rights advocacy group MassEquality and parade organizers that would have allowed a group of gay veterans to march, despite pressure from Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Rep. Stephen Lynch.
"We share these sentiments with Mayor Walsh, Congressman Lynch and others and therefore we will not participate in this year's parade," the Boston Beer Company said in a statement.
"We were hopeful an agreement could be reached to allow everyone, regardless of orientation, to participate in this parade. However, given the current status of the negotiations, this may not be possible," the statement read.
"The fact that they reacted as quickly as they did without a lot of additional pressure says a lot about them as a company I think that they realized that this was an issue they need to be sensitive to and I applaud them, I really do," Ribaudo said.
A 1995 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled that the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council could include or exclude whichever groups it wanted.
The parade organizers' phone was not answered. The parade, one of the largest St. Patrick's Day parades in the nation, draws as many as 1 million spectators to South Boston
wcvb.com
Heineken Withdraws from NY Parade
Following earlier news that the Boston Beer Company has pulled out of the city’s St Patrick’s Day parade, Heineken has announced that it won’t be participating in New York’s parade on March 17,Pink News reports.
Organizers of both cities’ parades have been under fire for prohibiting gay people from marching. Both New York’s recently elected mayor Bill de Blasio and Boston’s mayor Martin J Walsh are boycotting the events in their respective cities because of the ban.
Heineken says it supports “equality for all,” and won’t sponsor Monday’s parade.
Meanwhile auto manufacturer, Ford, says it will continue its sponsorship of the New York parade, noting that no event or group “reflects” the company’s views on every issue.
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