Patrick to march in Boston's gay parade
Reilly says he has prior commitment
Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly plans to skip this weekend's gay pride parade in Boston, while his rival for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, Deval Patrick, said yesterday that he will join in the boisterous, colorful march that winds through the city's streets.
Reilly's spokeswoman, Sarah Nathan, said yesterday that the attorney general has a commitment to attend his granddaughter's christening in New York. But his decision not to attend the parade exposed an early fault line between the two candidates, as both seek to court voters in the run-up to the Democratic primary next year.
Reilly is a supporter of same-sex marriage, Nathan said. So is Patrick, a former US Justice Department official and
According to Nathan, Reilly has not participated in the march in past years.
Governor Mitt Romney, who also pushed to halt same-sex marriages from out-of-state, plans to skip the parade, which he has not attended in past years, said his spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom. Romney plans to attend his high school reunion at Cranbrook, a private school outside Detroit, Fehrnstrom said.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Councilor Maura A. Hennigan, who is challenging him for the office this fall, plan to march in the event.
The parade Saturday, which begins in Copley Square, is part of a week of events that include dances, concerts, and parties. Billed as New England's largest gathering of gay pride events, with more than 400,000 participants, it has a theme this year of ''Pride in Progress -- What's Your Fight?" a reference to the Supreme Judicial Court decision that legalized gay marriage in Massachusetts last year.
Josh Friedes, a spokesman for the Freedom to Marry Coalition of Massachusetts, a gay-rights group, said he is not surprised Reilly will not be participating this year, while Patrick will take part.
''I think it says a lot about where they stand on basic civil rights for gay and lesbian Bay Staters," Friedes said.
